Ed - I copied this little post down a year or two ago. I believe it was
from one of the Imperial lists, but the author's e-mail is (or at least
was) Bevan7@xxxxxxx He reckons that there's not much to the repair.
Read for yourself:
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I don't know what these "auto clock repair" guys do other than convert them
to a quartz movement, but I do know that most of
the clocks in our imperials can be made to work again with little skill and
practically no investment!
Did you ever sit in an old car with the engine off waiting for someone to
come out of a store, bank, etc? Did you notice that
about every 2-1/2 minutes a "click" noise came from the dash area?
The noise was the clock rewinding itself electromagnetically. There is a
set of points-quite like ignition points in the clock. One
contact of the points is fixed and one moves on a ratchet attached to the
mainspring. As the spring winds down, the moving
point contact eventually touches the fixed contact and Lo! we have a
circuit to the electromagnet, which pulls the moving
contact arm back, winding the spring and breaking the circuit.
This action repeats itself--until the points become dirty and eroded from
the spark jumping across them. Then the clock stops
working. Anyway, remove your clock - you have to do this to send it off, so
it's no big deal.
Carefully remove the cover over the workings. You should see the points
then. Gently pull the moving contact side away from
the fixed side and let it go--most likely the clock will start working. If
not--a little WD-40 etc works wonders. Sometimes a
gentle nudge on the rocking wheel helps too. Let the points close again.
Then clean and flatten their surfaces with fine
sandpaper, a very small flat file-etc. Don't overdo it.
To test it use 2 jumper wires: One to the metal body of the clock and
negative, and one to the wire connector on the clock and
positive. If you've been gentle and careful the clock should now work. Let
it run and watch the points close and open on the
back if satisfied it is working ok. Reassemble and install.
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