Clock repair

[Murdlem]

Has anybody tried the following method of clock repair before? I found this on the type3.org website.



One day the clock in my squareback quit working. I'd been given a spare
when I bought the car, and obtained another from a car I parted out.
Neither of these worked, either. One of the spares had a metal cover on
the back, held on with two small slot head screws. The manufacture date on
the clock was 7/71. I took off the cover and found a small assortment of
plastic gears, a rotational oscillator (driven electromagnetically), and a
transitor, capacitor & 3 resistors. Not terribly complicated, but... let's
have a look at the other one. It had a plastic rear cover, but an earlier
date stamped on it. (It's installed in my car right now; my other example
of this type is dated 3/71.) The cover is held on by three nuts, one of
which is covered by what appears to be a plastic anti-tamper seal. (Pliers
took care of that...) Removing the cover revealed a bunch of neat-looking
metal gears... it was nothing more than a mechanical wind-up clock with an
electric winder! When it winds down every couple of minutes, a contact
closes (part of the winding down action) and a solenoid is energized. The
solenoid flies forward, instantly winding up the clock for the
next few minutes. You hear it go "clunk" periodically if you sit
in the car with the engine off. It turns out that there's a small internal
fuse built into the clock; mine had blown. (Somebody on r.a.vw pointed
this out to me. It was years ago, and I've forgotten who it was!) It
appeared as though the fuse was simply a very thin wire. I soldered a new
wire in its place, and it worked great! I should have lubricated it when I
had it apart, though. It runs slow here in the winter (average January
temperature is below freezing), just about right in spring and fall, and a
little fast in the summer if I don't pop it out and adjust the speed for
the season. I just think of it as a combination thermometer/chronometer.


-Greg
[email protected]
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Eric Meldrum
68 Ghia

Check out my blog. https://vwlifenet.wordpress.com/

[Air-Cooled Head]

Yep, that's about it. I used those, or similar instructions to fix the clock in my Square.
I believe the "fuse" was actually a pc of low-temp solder. That's what I used, anyway.
It's a PITA to get at, tho, and took me maybe an hour to get done.

Mine runs for about 1 minute, 17 seconds before rewind.
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[KTPhil]

When I was about 12, I used to sit in my dad's car (now mine) when it was new, and listen for the "klatch" sound, and try to figure out where it came from! I later discovered it was the clock, and the dealer told us how it worked. This was before the modern quartz electric movements.

[ghia4mea]

I made that repair to the clock in my square and sure enough the clock worked. Then I spent a couple months trying to adjust the clock to keep reasonable time.
I lubed the clock and adjusted it but sometimes it ran fast sometimes slow and finally it stopped again. The fuse was fine but the points in the clock were tired.
I got tired of taking the clock in and out so last week I just installed a quartz clock movement in it. Made a 12 volt to 1 1/2 volt power converter and she runs perfect now and actually keeps perfect time.
I used the longest shaft clock movement from Klock Kit company. I used the original VW clock hands crazy glued to the stubs of the quartz clock hands.
You can't tell the clock has been modified except for the fact that it never winds itself.

[claymonster]

after reading this thread I took the clock out of my 69 and sure enough the fuseable link was blown. I resoldered, hit it with penetrating oil and blew off the excess and it works like a charm now. cool to watch before you put it back together too.... thanks again samba
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[Tram]

I've soldered those links solid and made a pigtail extension wire out of fusible link so that it's outside the clock, in between the wire and where it plugs onto the back of the clock. Electric motor cleaner will clean the works just fine.
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[claymonster]

you always make me feel so stupid for not thinking of things like that.....
Thanks alot TRAM....


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[johnwhoss]

Anyone know how to adjust the clock? My clock runs slow. It'll lose ~10 minutes every 24 hours in the winter and ~2 minutes in the summer.
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VW Fact #128: Benefits of the Type III: better visibility, more space for people and objects, improved comfort, better roadhandling, reduced oversteer, less sensitivity to cross-winds, and more power.

[KTPhil]

There should be a screw head on the back cover, covered with paint to hold it in place, that is marked "+" and "-", to make the adjustment. However, you may need to have it cleaned and lubed to eliminate the summer/winter difference.

[flybayb]

[wafoxx]

Do I have a different clock than you guys are talking about or am I just daft?

My clock is stamped with 10 70 - I assume that is a date?

I don't see the fuse you guys are talking about....but as I said it could just be because I'm daft.

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'71 fastback (Work in progress)
fotos

[claymonster]

thats the one... you have to look close to where the solder link has been broken. you do not have to disassemble to fix it and should find it under the male electrical tab that is sticking out of the back.
good luck
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[roverjosh]

I did my clock (mechanical like above) by trial and error. I KNEW I should have looked here first. My fuse was actually fine. I just noticed that there was a thick layer of soot (for lack of a better word) all over the contacts. Cleaned it off with and emory board and "klak", there it went. My mistake was trying to take the gears apart, in my investigation to see how it worked. I almost ruined my whole clock when the timing spring snapped loose. After 20 minutes of swearing, I got it back together and working.

I second the "thanks Samba"!

Josh
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~I should change my cars name to "Leaky".

[DHPfirefighter]

I took mine apart and the "fuse" was fine. I put power to it and you could see the "points" open up and that was it, nothing else happens. Anybody have any ideas?

[wafoxx]

How can you test it before putting it back into the car - Power it off a 12v battery or something?
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'71 fastback (Work in progress)
fotos

[DHPfirefighter]

I have a spare battery for my car, so I just hooked it up to that.

[JSMskater]

how do you guys pull off that plastic cover? i pulled the tiny nuts off but for the life of me cant get it off....
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71 Squareback-FI -- 73 Bay (subaru powered)
TOOB Member #3
I make D-jet FI connectors

[wafoxx]

[wafoxx]

So is this the "fuse" we are talking about? Mine looks good if it is.

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'71 fastback (Work in progress)
fotos

[wafoxx]