In this latest article in the series, repairing your grandfather clock on your own, we’re going to go over a few more things you can do at home before taking your grandfather clock in for repair.
Another common problem with wall clocks is that the chimes are not in sequence with the displayed time. This usually happens on the chimes of the quarter hours. If this happens, there may not be a problem with the chime mechanism. Most grandfather clocks that have been made in the last 50 years have a chime correction device that should recycle the chimes in sync with the minute hand when it hits the hour. If your particular grandfather clock does not have an automatic chime correction device, the problem can be corrected manually by moving the minute hand back 15 minutes and then forward past the quarter hour. Keep doing this until the number of chimes matches the quarter hour that the hand points to.
To give you an example, the Westminster chimes strike 4 notes on the first quarter hour, 8 notes on the half hour, 12 notes on the three quarter hours, and 16 notes on the top of the hour. If the problem persists, it may mean that the minute hand has been installed on its shaft in the wrong direction. To fix this, remove the nut holding the minute hand with a pair of pliers. Next, take out the minute hand, turn it to the quarter hour indicated by the number of chimes being played, and then reinstall the nut. This should synchronize the chimes with the timing mechanism.
A final problem is when the weights refuse to come down. Every quarter of an hour, the time train rings the chimes. That, in turn, brings the weight of the left punch down on top of the hour. So if the pendulum in the center of the time train doesn’t drop, then the chime and impact weights won’t drop either. The first step to fixing this is to make the pendulum swing again. We covered it in the first article.
If the left and right weights refuse to fall, which means the pendulum swings and the clock hands move but the bell doesn’t work, what will happen is that the bell won’t work and in turn the knob won’t work either. it will work. What you need to do is check to see if the chime lever on the grandpa dial is properly centered over a chime and not in the off position. After doing that, remove the side panel of your grandfather clock and check that the steel bell delay bar has NOT been lowered onto the bell hammers, causing the bells to not work.
If only the left weight does not go down, that means only the hour chime is not working. To fix this, open the side panel and make sure the steel lag bar has not been lowered onto the firing pins, causing them to not work. Also make sure the hammers work freely. Finally, check and make sure the bells trigger lever is releasing the strike train.