buickbrothers Posted June 5 Share Posted June 5 Ok gents. I've worked on this clock and have it working now perfectly on the bench. I've cleaned, gently oiled specific parts and have it hooked up to a 12 v battery. It's been through a full day of running on the bench and the contact points trigger the re-wind of the clock as it should. I put it in the car - nada. I'm thinking it's not getting the voltage to trigger the contact points to open and re-wind the clock. I've tried the very technical approach to press the negative cable to the post and then strike the post - nada. I've checked the fuse - it's good. I've bypassed the clock wire, in case it has an issue, with an independent wire from the fuse panel directly to the clock. I have finally jumper'd the ends of the fuse terminals which resulted in bypassing the fuse all together and then manually wound the clock to start it. The contacts then opened and triggered the rewind of the clock when they reached a nearly closed potion, as it should, off the car battery. It's acting like there is not enough voltage to trigger opening the contacts for the rewind without the jumper. Is it a bad fuse panel? A 2 amp fuse is used but it seems to want a full 12v to trigger opening the contacts. Any thoughts on why it's not working without the jumper? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old-tank Posted June 5 Share Posted June 5 Those old glass fuses are junk they will transmit some voltage but no amps either replace the fuse with hopefully a new one that's working better or replace the fuse with a blade fuse. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KAD36 Posted June 5 Share Posted June 5 Needs nearly 12 to trigger the rewind. All my original fuses have been replaced with new ones having had similar experiences to the above. Sounds like you isolated it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buickbrothers Posted June 5 Author Share Posted June 5 So did you both still use a 2 amp fuse? I plan to switch to a blade fuse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted June 5 Share Posted June 5 If fuse replacement doesn't fix it, check that the clock has a good ground connection when installed in the instrument panel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old-tank Posted June 5 Share Posted June 5 1 hour ago, buickbrothers said: So did you both still use a 2 amp fuse? I plan to switch to a blade fuse. Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buickbrothers Posted June 6 Author Share Posted June 6 Ground is good EmTee. Can't seem to get this clock going without bypassing the fuse. I tried installing a new fuse and no go. I clip the ends of the fuse terminals to complete the circuit and the clock runs. I've checked the terminals to make sure they are making good contact with the fuse. It's acting like there is not enough voltage to run the clock with the fuse in. As stated earlier, when I ran the bench test for a full day I had it hooked directly to a car battery, and it worked fine. Not sure what else to do except mount the clock and let it be a decoration. I've invested way too many hours on this clock as it is and need to get on with resolving the speedometer issue unless anyone has a suggestion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted June 6 Share Posted June 6 45 minutes ago, buickbrothers said: I clip the ends of the fuse terminals to complete the circuit and the clock runs. Are you saying it runs if you place a jumper wire across the fuse terminals? If so, did you try a new fuse as suggested above? Does the clock blow the fuse? Can you measure (and post) the resistance across the fuse you are using? 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buickbrothers Posted June 6 Author Share Posted June 6 Yes, to all your questions EmTee. The fuse is measuring 2 ohm's. I think I found the problem which was the small coil wire running to the brass tank. Best way to put it, it had a pretty wimpy solder joint/connection which may have been affecting the voltage supply level, so I added solder. It's hard to see it very well unless you take the back plate off. I've now retested it in the car the clock is working! I hear the contacts clicking open and rewinding the clock. Haven't installed back in the dash yet so one more step to confirm it's fully working. Thanks for the suggestions. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KAD36 Posted June 6 Share Posted June 6 Think mine is 5 because I couldn’t find a 2. Was not one of my better moments. It’s been quite a few years. At least the clock doesn’t leak. 😁 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buickbrothers Posted June 7 Author Share Posted June 7 I installed the clock in the dash yesterday and it ran all night without a glitch! Yee haw. One of two problems solved in order to finally close the dash up. On to the speedometer problem in my other post. Thanks all... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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