Clock not working.

[bigkiltguy]

Is it expensive or difficult to get my clock working again? I looked though the posts and can't find any information about my clock (1972 hardtop). I don't want to replace the gauge if I don't have to.


jim.
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"WOW did you see the oil under your car?" "Don't worry man, my Ghias' just pissin on your driveway!"

[Gary]

Search around this forum. Somewhere, someone posted a complete How-To in repairing the clock. Looking for a replacement will be a futile effort.
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West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943)

[bigkiltguy]

I found a tone of informatin on clocks, but only for the earlier models. (small face)

I have a '72 so it is the larger speedo sized clock. Still looking but no luck.


jim
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"WOW did you see the oil under your car?" "Don't worry man, my Ghias' just pissin on your driveway!"

[72Coupe]

I am posting this from memory of a response I got to a similar question. I believe it was the FANTASTIC JEFF HAMILTON at REVOLKS that shared the info. He YELLS a lot, but his answers are concise and quite helpful.

1. Get an old piece of speaker wire and put an aligator clip on both ends. Use this to go straight from a known 12 volt source to your clocks power line. If it works, your problem is in your wiring.

[guenther]

Check the classified here. There was a guy that was selling NOS clocks for '72-'74 a while back for $75 or $80. He had several of them if I remember correctly.
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OG JHC

[NOVA Airhead]

Check this out for repairing clocks:

http://www.aircooledtech.com/vdo_repair/

My clock is also not working. I have not had the chance to follow the instructions in this article but it appears to be a good source of information in diagnosing and possibly repairing your clock.

Good LucK! Let us know how you make out.

[lemke]

I believe that a ’72 Ghia’s clock was a quartz movement, not electrical-mechanical. But I may be mistaken on that. If it is solid state, it could be relatively simple to replace the movement.

[[email protected]]

Yeah. That web link pretty much sums up what to do when your internal fuse link blows which is the 98% reason all VDO clocks stop working....

The article doesn't cover how to get INTO the clock other than to say remove the three nuts at back of the casing which is a start but not all you must do.

Since there are three different designs it's a bit different between the model years but basically the same process is followed:

REMEMBER: THIS IS A CLOCK NOT AN ENGINE. USE CARE. BE GENTLE

The front of the clock (the part you look at when it's mounted in your Ghia) has a metal (chromed or anodized) bezel that holds the clock's lens to the metal housing.
This outer bezel is actually press-fit and crimped onto the metal casing so removal of it is required so you can access the gearing and fuse inside and or clean the clock face and possibly repaint the hour and minute "hands" or the internal bezel that surrounds the face. I also inspect the inner walls of the casing and sometimes repaint it if worn, burned or crusty. This will help your dash "light" to eluminate the clock better. Don't put any force on the internal light bulb housing as it will snap easily. Use a Q-tip and canned-air to clean it if needed..

The best analogy I can make to removing the outer bezel is:
- It's like removing a bicycle tire from the rim. -
You need a small/thin flat-blade screwdriver to gently pry the lip of the outer bezel off the metal housing (the canister that contains the clockwerks).
I always setup for this process on several clean paper towels laid on my workstation so I can put all parts into small piles and keep them clean. Several small cups to hold all "like" parts together is a great ideal as they are all very small and some very fragile.
I like to use a roll of masking tape and place the roll on my work surface. This is then covered with another piece of paper towel and then I lay the clock face-down, centered on the roll of masking tape. This prevents you from damaging the clock's adjustment knob which sticks out through the lens by lifting the whole assembly off the work surface so the clock lens won't feel any pressure applied to the clock casing.
You need a tape roll that is sized for the clock as the earlier clock and very latest clock have different sized faces compared to the smaller clock, so size the tape roll accordingly so your working (pressure applied to clock bezel) doesn't damage the lens. This is critical since the lens is just plastic and can CrAcK suddenly...

Use a small/thin bladed instrument (like eye-glass screwdrivers) to gently pry the lip of the bezel away from the casing and rotate the clock's casing a few degrees and keeping doing this in a round-robin style.
Don't try to pry the lip away fully all at once in just one spot or you will crack the bezel which is very thin metal. It's better to work the whole lip away from the casing a bit at a time by rotating the clock and keep moving around the perimeter until you can get the bezel lip pried away enough to be "popped off" the casing. This is kinda like pulling a cork from a wine bottle.

Once this chrome bezel is off the face, the clock lens will seperate with it and the internal bezel will too leaving just the clock face and arms open. The internal bezel may now be repainted if needed. I use "gun metal grey metallic" for this internal bezel as it most closely matches the original paint.

Finally you'll be able to pull the clockwerks out of the canister/casing after those three tiny nuts on the back are removed. The whole clockwerks will fall-out the front of the casing now so cup your hand over the open end and push those three studs gently until it slips out into your palm.
Don't loose the grounding strap in back that is part of one of the retaining nuts. This is essential for the clock to work as it transfers "ground" (battery negative) to the clock's internals from the casing.
The lens as I've said is plastic so if it's scratched heavily you will need to polish it with jeweler's rouge or similar buffing compound and a buffing wheel.
Be careful not to melt the plastic lens by holding it on the polishing wheel too long in any one place.
If you have deeper scratches, you can actually polish them out too by first sanding the plastic face with 1500 grit wet/dry paper which is used WET. For this however, you'll have to remove the adjustment knob which is press-fit to a captive shaft through the lens. This is not easy but can be done with appropriate sized blunt-nose pliers to hold the adjuster inside by it's ridge/tooth (the part that engages the actual clock arms in center). When you pull this (the internal adjuster part) off, the shaft, knob and captive spring on the outside can be pulled through the lens. Don't loose the captive spring or the knob will fall into the clock face during normal operation and possibly bind-up the clock. This small spring is very "dainty" so treat it with respect!
You can apply a small amount of sewing machine oil to the adjustment shaft so it moves easier through the tight-fitting lens hole.

Now, FINALLY, you can slip the clockwerks out of the metal casing/housing and do the work shown on that web page.
One thing I would add to that is the spraying of oil "all over".
I don't agree with that simply because that oil will trap dirt/dust and contact burn later-on. I recommend only using compressed air to clean the "werks". I then use a few Q-tips to wipe off any major dirt and ONLY oil the gearing spindles at their contact points with the gear plates. This is neater and less likely to atract dirt later-on. You can use a toothpick to drip machine oil onto these specific points with accuracy so you don't "bathe" the assembly in oil.
ALSO, there is only one jewel in these clocks and it's at the base of that rotating "second" gear he speaks of. Don't oil that spot. It spins on the jewel as a material which won't get worn by the metal spindle. This is important to the timing of the clock. If the jewel is worn then the clock will never keep time and may in fact stop working sporadically.
For this reason, I always fix the fuse link and clean up the "werks" and then setup the clock on my work suface (using the masking tape roll as a "base" to hold it horizontal as in the dash). Then connect a 12v battery with aligator clips on speaker wire to the male-spade input (12v +) and the ground (12v - ) to the grounding stud so I can leave the clock open and running for at least one day or 24 hour period. This way I can determine if it's keeping time well or not and adjust the timing screw until it does keep time.

Then if you're happy with how it's functioning you can put it all back together.
The outer bezel will be the last thing to go back on and it's simply snapped-onto the casing lip just as it was popped-off earlier. You can look closely at the bezel to see if there is now a better "side" to position upwards. This will help if your bezel has any ugly scratch or ding in it as it will be downward out of sight when installed in the dash.
Then back onto it's face, on a roll of masking tape and you can use any blunt tool to GENTLY squish the bezel's lip back-over the casing lip, working around the perimeter to slowly squeeze the bezel tight to the casing. Same as removal don't try to tighten-up one spot and move on. It's very fragile metal and can only handle so much tension. Better to work the whole perimeter a bit at a time then one spot all in one "go".
One thing of importance is this outer chromed/anodized bezel... It can SO EASILY dent-up from excessive force so BE CAREFUL when applying any force to it. You don't want to inadvertantly crush the "face" of the bezel as you apply force to the rear-lip to close it back up....
IT'S A CLOCK. NOT AN ENGINE. Adjust your tooling and force accordingly.

HTH.
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jeff
http://www.revolks.com/