You might be careful with your grandfather clock and try to maintain it in a good condition but sooner or later the time when you will need to repair it will come. Some issues are easy to troubleshoot, while others will require a clockmaster’s hand.
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The issues that might occur with your grandfather clock that you can fix easily by yourself are normally related to a moon dial or chimes. For example, difficulty rotating the moon dial, a grandfather clock does not chime at proper time, a grandfather clock does not strike the correct hour, a grandfather clock will not chime or strike, chimes have the incorrect tone. Premier Clocks will provide the instructions with detailed information with how to address the most common issues.
If the moon dial will not rotate (as described in the set up operations), this may indicate that the gears which automatically advance the moon dial are engaged. To correct this situation, rotate the minute hand backward 3-1/2 hours as described here, set the moon dial, and then set the time as described in here.
First thing you need to do is to check the beat of your grandfather's clock. Listen to the tick-tock sound and notice if it’s an even and steady tick-tock beat. The time between tick and tock should be equal. The distance of the pendulum swinging from the dead center to the right and to the left also should be equal. Your grandfather clock will stop working if it’s out of beat.
If you hear the irregular beat (tock—tick-tock—tick), you will need to do an adjustment. You can try to re-level your grandfather clock by slightly moving it from left to right until you hear that the beat becomes even. If this doesn’t work, you can try to take off the pendulum and move the pendulum leader from side to side until it starts swinging on its own. Now you can reattach the pendulum and the grandfather clock should work.
If the grandfather clock chimes more than one minute before or after the proper time, the minute hand should be removed and adjusted.
CAUTION: When performing this operation be careful not to scratch the hand nut, hand or dial.
1. When the grandfather clock starts to chime, stop the pendulum and record the time.
2. Using pliers, carefully remove the small nut that holds the minute hand in place by turning the nut counterclockwise while at the same time hold the minute hand with your fingers near the small nut.
3. Remove the hand from the hand shaft by grasping it with your fingers at the point where it attaches to the shaft. Pull the hand straight off. This hand is not screwed on and should come off easily. The minute hand has a small raised area on the back side directly around the shaft hole, this is the hand bushing. Using pliers, grip the bushing firmly by its sides so that it cannot slip in the pliers. With your other hand, turn the clock hand forward or backward the distance necessary to chime at the correct time.
4. Re-attach the hand to the shaft and turn the hand nut finger tight. Make sure the hand points to the correct location that you recorded in Step 1 plus any corrections you made in step 3. If the hand does not point to the correct mark, repeat steps 2 and 3.
5. Snug up the hand nut with the pliers. Do not over tighten.
6. Start pendulum.
7. Re-set the time by moving ONLY THE MINUTE HAND counterclockwise (backwards) as described here.
EXAMPLE: Grandfather clock chimes at 1:10 but should chime at 1:15.
If after several hours of operation your clock does not strike the correct hour, grasp the HOUR HAND ONLY and move it forward or backward to line up with the correct hour on the dial indicated by the number of times the hour strikes. Rotating this hand independently will not damage the clock. If the minute hand needs to be reset (to correct time), move the minute hand counterclockwise (backwards) as described here.
Make sure that the selection lever is not in the “silent” position or halfway between two chime melody positions. Make sure that all the packing material is removed from the movement area. Make sure that the weights are hanging in the correct location by checking the label on the bottom of each weight to ensure proper location. For models with nighttime silencing, make sure that the grandfather clock isn't in the nighttime silence mode. Check hammer adjustment and correct chime tone as necessary.
Move the chime selection lever to a different melody or to “silent”. It is possible that the styrofoam blocks located above the cable pulleys are binding the cable. Carefully remove the styrofoam blocks by lifting the blocks straight up until they clear the cable pulley. Then gently push them back through the cables. Don't use tools to remove the blocks. Don't permit the cable to overlap on the drum.
DO NOT ADJUST CHIME HAMMERS, unless the chime tone is incorrect. Chime tone may be affected by the hammers resting on the chime rods or striking the rods off center. Although the hammers were set at the factory, it is possible for them to get out of adjustment. For most grandfather clocks, it will not be necessary to adjust chime hammers. There are different types of chimes, (rods and tubes), please find yours below.
CHIME ROD hammer arms are made of brass and can be safely bent. If necessary, adjust hammers so that they do not interfere with each other while moving or striking the chime rods. This is accomplished by bending the hammer arms slightly in the middle so that each hammer rests approximately 1/8” from each rod. DO NOT bend the chime rods. Chime volume cannot be adjusted on a chime rod movement.
CHIME TUBE hammer arms are made of spring steel; DO NOT bend the hammer arms. The clarity of sound is determined by the distance between the hammer and the chime tube. This is typically 1/16”.
However, this distance can be adjusted by loosening or tightening the thumb screw attached to the hammer string. Important: If the tension is too strong or the string is too tight, it can cause the chime to stop during the chime process.
NOTE: The hammer tension screw is set at the factory, and is NOT adjustable.
When the automatic nighttime shutoff feature is selected, and on some models the “silent” feature, the center weight will drop at a faster rate than the other weights.
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Bejamin
May 21, 2024
I have a grandfather clock but it’s been taken apart. Anyone wanna buy it or point me in the right direction thanks