Grandfather Clock Repair
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Grandfather Clock Troubleshooting:
My pendulum stops swinging on my Grandfather Clock
Weights up and in order? They will probably be marked on the bottom of each weight as “Left, Center Right”. The weights do need to be at the top so gravity may pull on them to run the clock. Make sure your clock is wound by:
(chain driven clocks) pulling the chains down while the weights are fully raised.
(cable driven clock) winding the crank so the weights are fully raised.
Hands have to be free! Make sure the hands are free from touching the other hands and second hand. Also make sure the hands are not touching the dial at any point. If the hands are touching, this will stop the clock. Slightly bend the hands away from each other by holding the hand still toward the center and slightly pulling the hands away from each other.
Grandfather Clock Moondial Hung? If your clock has a moon dial, make sure it is free by slightly moving it enough to tell if it is free or frozen. If frozen, move the minute hand back a few hours and check it again. It should be free. If not go a few more hours back and check again. Set your clock to the correct time again and this probably will not happen again.
Is the Grandfather Clock Pendulum dragging? Look into the lower side window and watch the pendulum swing. If the pendulum is touching the chime rods toward the back or touching the weights toward the front, the pendulum will stop. This indicates a problem in leveling from front to rear. Read below:
Grandfather Clock Leveling ~ Your clock will probably have 4 adjustable levelers under each corner. Place a level on the clock and see if it is level from front to back and left to right. Adjust the levelers as needed. Looking down toward the floor, clockwise extends the levelers.
Check The “Beat”: Listen to the tick-tock on the clock and see if it is nice, even tick-tock. Equal time between the TICK and the TOCK. The pendulum to make it swing exactly equal distances from dead center to the left, as from dead center to the right. If a clock is out of beat, the pendulum will swing for a few minutes, then stop. If the beat is irregular like: tick—tock——tick-tock, an adjustment must be made or the clock will stop. This can be done by either try leveling again from left to right until you hear the most even tick-tock. If this fails, you may take off the pendulum and slightly move the pendulum leader from left to right or right to left until it almost or starts moving back and forth on it’s own. Rehang the pendulum and the clock should continue.
My Grandfather Clock Keeps Good Time, But The Chimes Stopped: Make sure the weights are in the proper position. They will probably be marked on the bottom of each weight as “Left, Center Right” . Look at the melody chime hammers that strike the rods (usually on the right of the movement) to see if any of the chime hammers are in a position other than at rest. If you see one or more out further than the others, the hammers have become jammed. Pulling back on them and releasing might get it started again. Look at the strike hammers (usually on the left of the movement) and check for the same symptoms. As a clock ages the oils and lubricants become gummy and the chimes start slowing down and then finally come to a stop or it may become dry and the same problem may happen. It may need cleaning and oiling as they should about every 5 years. Don’t attempt to oil it yourself unless you have been trained to do such and use only a good clock oil and nothing else. Many oils will make a mess of clocks. Use our clock repair center listings to find someone close by who can come to your home and fix the problem.
My Grandfather Clock Chimes The Wrong Hour: It may be 4:00, but the clock chimes another hour? Next time the clock strikes the hour, count the strike. For example, let’s say it counted 2 times but it is really 2:00 according to the hands. Carefully move the hour hand (the short one) to the hour of the number of strikes played. In this example we would move the hour hand to 2:00. Chimes are now in sync and correct, but the clock is showing the wrong time. Move the minute hand forward stopping at each time the chime plays allowing the chime to complete before continuing to advance to the next chime point until you reach the correct time.
Grandfather Clock Weights Are Out of Order: They will probably be marked on the bottom of each weight as “Left, Center Right”. If not, usually the lightest weight goes on the left to drive the hour count and the other two weights (probably equal) go on the middle and right positions.
*If your clock has a wood stick pendulum, this may be different. Hang the heaviest weight on the right side as it needs more power to run all of the melody chime hammers. The other two equal and lighter weights should be placed in any order on the left side strike train and center time train.