Re: KIENZLE Clock Repair (Long)

[Henry Frye <thefryes@domain.elided>]

Glenn was kind enough to put together the following post on the repair of
the Kienzle clock found in most Stags. I just took my clock apart, and
found several differences between the clock Glenn described, and mine. I
have annotated Glenn's text highlighting the differences.

At 12:16 PM 2/12/99 -0700, Glenn Merrell wrote:
>
>On the face of the clock is should say KIENZLE just under the 12 o'clock
>position, and a black adjusting knob in the middle of the plastic window.  If
>so, then this is a solenoid wind up type.  This means that there is a
solenoid
>that pulses every so often to keep the mainspring wound.
>
>Tools needed:
>-small flatblade screwdriver
>-small pliers or nut driver set.
>-single thin strand of copper wire
>-solder iron with pinpoint tip
>-electronics grade solder
>-some sort of holder to keep the clock adjusting knob off the table, it
breaks
>easily.
>
>To dissassemble the clock, two things must be done:
>1.  Figure out a way to unroll the bead on the bezel on the back edge without
>damaging the bezel.  I used a small flat blade screw driver, working my way
>around between the clock case and the bezel.  CAREFUL, the bezel can
split, >and the clock adjusting knob breaks off easily.

This is by far the most difficult task of the job. I accomplished this the
same way Glenn did, with a small flat tip screwdriver from my computer
repair kit. There is a portion of the bezel that IS split up to a point. I
found that after working my way around the base of the bezel a few times
carefully bending the lip up, and gently allowing the split to open a
little allowed me to remove the bezel. Along with the bezel comes the
plastic face with the adjusting knob. I found no need for the holder Glenn
described, as I held the clock body in one hand, while manipulating the
screwdriver with the other.  

>2.  Once the bezel edge is unrolled, there is one nut securing the clock
>internals, it is the one between the 12 and 1 o'clock position on the back. 
>Unscrew this nut and gently push the internals out the front of the case.
DO NOT
>BREAK OFF THE PLASTIC ROUND PIECES ON THE BACK OF THE CASE, THEY ARE
INSULATORS
>FOR INTERNAL SCREWS.

I have 3 nuts securing the clock internals to the case. All three nuts need
to be removed. Each stud protruding out the back of the case has a rubber
insulator. The insulators were all quite solid, I had no fear of losing
them. Two studs have flat washers that adhere to the rubber, so care must
be taken not to lose them. The third stud has a tiny lock washer which will
fall off quite readily. The connector for the 12V hot lead, and the
fast/slow adjusting screw have rubber insulators as well. My case has no
plastic round pieces as Glenn described.

>Repair:
>3.  carefully inspect the internals looking for little beads of solder.
Clean
>them out when you find them, being careful that you do not damage anything
>inside.  Inspect the clock gears for little balls of solder that may be
>jamming things.
>4.  look for the wire wound solenoid.  You will see two little "rings" at the
>top of the internals that may have solder on them.  There should be a wire
>connecting them.  If no wire is across these two points, it has burned out
most
>likely by a low voltage battery drawing a high current.  This is an internal
>fuse.  If this fuse is intact, there is another problem with the clock and
>careful checking might find the cause.  If you replace the internal fuse,
best
>bet is to externally fuse the clock with a 1/10 ampere fuse and fuse holder.

My solenoid is not as described. It is a wire wound solenoid, but I found
no wire across two soldered points. The contacts were a little dirty, but
otherwise, the solenoid looked fine.

After inspecting the internals before I really touched anything, it was
apparent the mainspring on my clock was wound. This told me the solenoid
worked the last time it was called on.

My problem lies elsewhere.

>5. Test the clock operation by observing how the solenoid winds the
mainspring. 
>Gently push the solenoid lever up, allowing the latch arm to wind the
mainspring
>gear with the down force.  If the clock starts ticking, all is well. Play
with
>this for a while, and you will note that the solenoid needs to energize about
>every 30 seconds.  You will note that when the mainspring winds down, the
>soleniod arm has two "contacts" on the bottom of it that connect, drawing
>battery voltage and energizing the solenoid.

Did this, it didn't start ticking. I disengaged the lever and allowed the
mainspring to unwind. This closed the contacts on the solenoid. I applied
12V to the clock, and the solenoid went snap, winding the mainspring. So
that part is OK.

>6.  prepare a short piece of a single strand of thin copper wire to fit
across
>the two eyeholes, carefully solder them back in place.
>7. test the clock.  Note the Positive connection spade lug, and the one
with the
>nut is the Negative.  USING EXTREME CARE and Safety Glasses, connect a 12
volt
>DC battery, (car battery is fine) to the terminals using some small insulated
>jumpers.  The solenoid will immediately energize and wind up the mechanism. 
>Watch it for a couple of minutes to get the idea of how it works.  Remove the
>clock from the battery.

The electrical portion of my clock worked, so I started looking at why the
clock was not running. I followed the path of torque the wound mainspring
puts on the gears. I gently rocked each gear back and forth verifying the
gears were free. Everything moved, and no gears appeared to be fouled with
foreign material. 

Please forgive my lack of proper clock terminology!

The clock uses a sort of tiny flywheel with a wound spring that looks like
a cross between a child's toy top, and a gyroscope. The spring allows the
flywheel to move about 180 degrees clockwise, then it rebounds and moves
180 degrees counter(anti)clockwise, then back and forth, etc. There is a
post extending from this flywheel that moves a bar left, then right, left,
right... This is translated to the cog that actually counts the seconds.

The flywheel needs to move in as frictionless a manner as possible, so the
bottom of the flywheel spindle come to a sharp point, and sits in a dish.
This dish appears to allow some movement in the bottom spindle. I assume
this movement is necessary so the clock can tolerate the shock that an
automotive clock will encounter.

My problem is the bottom spindle on the tiny flywheel can move outside the
limits of allowable movement, and when it does so, the flywheel binds, and
the clock will stop.

I carefully pushed the flywheel so the spindle was back in the center of
the dish, and the clock started ticking away. However, when I bump the
clock in any way, the flywheel slides a bit sideways, binds, and the clock
stops.

Something tells me pulling the clock internals apart to get the flywheel
out, and using the MIG to put some material back on there is out of the
question!  ;-)

>8.  carefully insert the clock internals back into the case using proper
>alignment for the spade connections, reinstalling the nut.
>9. clean the clear plastic window and bezel pieces, insert the green
lightpipe
>collar, place the plastic window back on the face, followed by the two
pieces of
>bezel.
>10.  Rerolling the bezel:  The center adjusting knob can break easily, so use
>the same holder you used to unroll the bezel.  I had difficulty rerolling the
>bezel tightly with a rounded edge tool, but that seems to work best.
Retest the
>clock before installing into the dash.

I have not bothered to reinstall the bezel, obviously. But, it does appear
to be problematic.

Any questions, please ask Glenn!   ;-)
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 Henry Frye - thefryes@domain.elided - Connecticut, USA
 Stag MkI  	Getting Sorted Out
 TR3B   	Driver          
 TR250 X 3	The BIG Project - Will Be Worth the Wait
 Homepage	http://members.iconn.net/thefryes/