While my dash is out, decided to replace the foggy/clouded clock lens. Figured I would test my clock before installing the lens to see if it works, and it no longer runs. What are the recommended steps for bringing a clock back to life?
Rocketman / Bob McMullan can rebuild your clock movement for $50. I just had him do three for me. You can google his information. He can also convert to quartz at an additional cost.
This from Rocketman’s website, as of tonight.
Special announcement concerning clock servicing of Ford, Lincoln, Mercury OEM clock movements 1964-1973
Due to the increasing number of attempted self repairs, missing, rusted, corroded and broken parts, and generally worsening condition of clocks being sent in for repair and my diminishing supply of good, usable parts available I am suspending Clock Servicing.
I hope to have some clocks available for sale once I have some time to sort through my cores and see what I have that can be saved with the parts I have.
Due to problems with the quartz conversions lately as of March 1, 2022 I will no longer convert clocks to modern movements.
When did you have yours repaired?
If you want to try it yourself, decent write up here.Clock restore
I went with a kit from these guys. The youtube video looks like an old VHS tape, but my 69 predates VCRs so it worked pretty well.
Sometimes they are just inoperative from dust in the movement. You can flush it with WD40 and it often fixes them.
1 Like
They came back last week. I hope mine weren’t what pushed him over the edge! They all seemed like good cores.
I really like 3-In-1 “Dry lubricant” for this. It is a spray on liquid that seems to work great for cleaning the 50+ year old guck out, but leaves a dry film as it evaporates, and frees up these moving parts very well.
I don’t advertise them, but I still do the OEM movements for “folks I know”.
I do not do quartz anymore - it’s hit or miss on the kits working for the last year.
PM or email me if you need one done.
1 Like
I second Royce on the WD40.
Spray lube won’t fix the clock if it is rusted solid, or if the winding mechanism is open, or if the points are fried. It only works if dirt is the culprit. Maybe 1 out of three will respond to this.
1 Like
i found a guy on ebay that supplied me with a AA battery clock replacement .
I was thinking about the AA battery clock. Could you give me the contact information please and thank you.
Darrel
As a collector of vintage stereo equipment I use electronics fader cleaner. It has to be the type that won’t harm plastic. I follow it up with fader lube. Deoxit brand. I used to use WD-40 but Deoxit works best for me. It dries on its own without using compressed air. Fixed many an auto clocks in my days. Good luck.
I cant recall the name, its been a while, but just google it and I’m sure it will come up somewhere ?
I got him from ebay ……
As a high school student I worked for Zales Jewelers. I got to take things to the shop where the real jewelers did their work. There were goldsmiths and watch makers and all kinds of very highly skilled people working there. I would get to hang out and watch while I waited for them to finish things up. I got the goldsmiths to teach me some techniques using a tiny torch to melt gold into a repair and the watch makers would show me a few tricks of the trade.
On old watches and clock movements they would put the works, minus the face and hands and so on, into kerosene to soak. It would break down any oil or other nastiness. They would then use a long set of jewelers needle nose pliers (no teeth, smooth jaws) and sort of swish the works around in the kerosene to rinse out the gunk. After it came out they wrapped it in tissue and then hung it from an alligator clip to drip dry. They would examine it under magnification for any damaged parts or missing gem stone bearings (when they talked of a jeweled movement that is what they were talking about). If all was good then thy would apply a very small amount of watch oil, (very light oil) and then give it a moment to allow capillary action to pull it into the bearing areas. Again they would wrap it in soft cloth and use very light puffs of compressed air to blow the excess oil out. This part was done with great care. They would then wind or power the movement and look for any oil seeping out, to be carefully blown out always into the cloth.
I have used this on our Cougar clocks and it works so long as everything is just dirty. I have used 3 in 1 oil cut with a little pure denatured alcohol. Also the oil sold for hair clippers seems to be pretty close.
Otherwise, be careful with the points. They have a hardened surface that you don’t want to sand off.
I should clarify. The air wasn’t so much to remove excess oil as it was to create a very thin layer of oil on the internal parts as a sort of shield against moisture and oxidization. They applied only very tiny amounts of oil.
I think I fixed it! Yay! Well maybe. Yesterday I received my CRC Electronic Cleaner, and gave the mechanism several healthy blasts. Today, I tried WD40, If its good enough for Royce, how bad could it be. I sprayed it, unsure of how much to use, then tried to work the gears. Holy smokes! The second hand started ticking. Wow, couldn’t believe it. Watched as the points closed, then hooked the wires to 12v, and the points snapped open, and second hand began ticking again. I need to hook it up o constant 12v to see if the clock will run continuously.
Well I’m excited, for what may be a small victory.
Thanks to everybody for the tips 
It really does help.
2 Likes