Hi all,

Who can tell me how to R&R the small clock (fits into the area to the right of the instrument cluster)?

I checked the archives and FAQ, and all I see is a place that repairs them.

I checked the wiring and the clock is getting power, but the time doesn’t change. I even spun the gears inside with a small screwdriver and the hands move, so I'm pretty sure the gears are ok. The problem is I can't get the innards out to check any electrical connections. How do you get the front cover off???

I'm not sure when the clock last worked as I bought this one on ebay last fall but haven't been able to install it until the recent warm-up in the northeast.

Thanks for the help,

Ian Forbes

Hamden, CT

Take the clock out. See the black 'trim ring' around the face? You're going to pry it off from the back. The black metal ring is bent/wrapped around a small lip on the silver metal 'can'. Use a tiny flathead screwdriver or other suitable implement to pry up the wrapped portion of the black ring - don't worry that it looks like hell, 'cause the plastic trim bezel will hide it. Work your way around until you can remove the black ring (along with it will come the black adjuster knob and glass face.

Now gently take a needlenose pliers and push up underneath the hands to slide them off of the center post - take note, they are keyed for easy reinstallation. Using a tiny screwdriver (and being careful not to scratch the face), unscrew the two face screws and remove the face/guts from the silver can.

Now that you've got the guts out, you can look for trouble spots. These clocks are notorious for 'freezing' in cold weather (i.e. if it dips below 40deg F the clock stops until it warms back up). You can identify two 100uF capacitors on the very back end of the guts, on either side, on the circuit board. These are the troublemakers - replace them with a new pair from Radio Shack (take note, they are electrolytic, so get proper replacements and pay attention to polarity.) I'm not sure if this helps you (it sounds like you might have a broken connection somewhere), but as long as you're in there you may as well replace them anyway (a couple cents and 5 min vs. having to open this little can 'o' worms again in the future - My clock in my '83 did this, and I had a spare, so I swapped 'em - one year later, the swapped one was doing it!)

Putting it back together is just the opposite - don't worry about a real clean bend when you put the black ring back on, just make sure it won't fall off!

Jason,

Thanks for the excellent information.

However, when I attempted this last night, I discovered that the 'guts' are held into the silver can by a small round brass piece on the back of the can that is soldered to the bottom of the circuitboard inside the can. I can not see any way to get the guts out without breaking the solder connection, and if the solder connection is broken, I can't figure out how it could be resoldered...but then again, I'm no soldering iron wizard.

I have no idea what this will look like, but it's worth a try...

solder connection at bottom of can

_________

| | |

| _|___ |

| |

circuit board inside can

I guess my clock was just a little different.

Thanks for the post...I'm kind of bummed because I wanted to try my hand at soldering in new capacitors.

Ian Forbes

Hamden, CT

There is a link from this page

http://web.one.net.au/~hysteria2/tech.html

You have to de-solder that brass ring, and re-solder it later. You do not break the solder joint, you heat it with a soldering iron and remove the solder using de-solder braid or a 'solder sucker'. To re-solder you heat the joint and add fresh solder. Make sure you have an iron powerful enough to do the job, a small one made for electronics (ideal for the caps inside) may not have enough heat capacity to do this.

HTH,

Andrew