Do-it-yourself grandfather clock repair – Part III
In this final article in the series, Repairing Your Grandfather Clock Do It Yourself, we’re going to go over a few more things you can do at home before taking your grandfather clock in for repair.
Another common problem with wall clocks is that the chimes are not in sequence with the time displayed. This usually happens at the chimes of the quarter hours. If this happens, there may not be a problem with the chime mechanism. Most grandfather clocks made in the last 50 years have a chime correction device that should recycle the chimes in sync with the minute hand when it hits the hour. If your particular grandfather clock does not have an automatic chime correction device, the problem can be manually corrected by moving the minute hand back 15 minutes and then forward past the quarter hour mark. Keep doing this until the number of chimes matches the quarter hour pointing on the hand.
To give you an example, the Westminster chimes play 4 notes on the first quarter hour, 8 notes on the half hour, 12 notes on the three quarter hours, and 16 notes on the top of the hour. If the problem persists, it may mean that the minute hand has been installed on its axis in the wrong direction. To fix this, remove the nut that holds the minute hand in place with a pair of pliers. Then, pull out the minute hand, turn it to the quarter hour indicated by the number of chimes being played, and then reinstall the nut. This should synchronize the chimes with the timing mechanism.
A final problem is when the weights refuse to go down. Every quarter of an hour, the time train rings the bells. That, in turn, causes the weight of the left jab to fall at the top of the hour. So if the time train’s center pendulum doesn’t drop, then the chime and impact weights won’t drop either. The first step to fixing this is to make the pendulum swing again. We covered it in the first article.
If the left and right weights refuse to fall, which means the pendulum is swinging and the clock hands are moving but the chime is not working, then the chime is not working and the knob is not working either. it will work. What you need to do is check to see if the chime lever on the grandfather dial is correctly centered over a chime and not in the off position. After you do that, remove the side panel of your grandfather clock and check that the steel bell delay rod has NOT been lowered onto the bell hammers, causing the bells to not work.
If only the left weight does not go down, that means only the hour chime is not working. To fix this, open the side panel and make sure the steel delay bar hasn’t been lowered onto the firing pins, causing them to not work. Also make sure the hammers run freely. Finally, check and make sure the bells firing lever is releasing the strike gear.
