Old clock repair- HELP!

[classicfan1]

I'm trying to repair my granny's clock and something went wrong with the little weights that go around and around. I found a very thin wire inside that probably has something to do with it. I've had it since Easter and I've been side tracked with school, Eagle Scout (closed the book on that today), and college. I'd like to have it done by Thanksgiving if possible, otherwise she won't have it back on the mantle by Christmas. They got this when they, along with my mom and aunt, lived in Germany in the 70s so it is kind of important. Thank you to anyone who can help.

Also, please forgive me, I'm not repairing clocks often. My language may lack proper terms so go easy on me.



The wire thing that came out?

[ndakotan]

There aren't many with the knowledge to work on mechanical clocks any more. My grandfather was one expert, until he died in 1985. This particular movement looks like a 400 day anniversary clock, wound once a year. He strongly disliked working on the movement as the spring was so strong that it was pretty hard on the components.

It looks like the thin wire you've found is what connects the balls/pendulum to the movement. Yeah, my knowledge of terminology is limited too. :-) There are clock forums much like this Redliners' forum that would probably be a good source for finding out exactly what's wrong, where you could get the part, and whether it's a fix you could do or need to find someone else to do it. I'm naive and it looks like it should be straight forward. :-)

I have a chiming clock that one day wouldn't stop chiming a few months ago. Well, until the spring wound down. There's a pin that drops into a slot to stop it that broke. I took the movement in, and the guy said that it was cheaper to replace the 30 year old movement with a new movement than it'd be for him to take it apart and fix it. Sooo, a bit of searching on the web found the right replacement...