Re: Clock Resto? and dimming lights...

[Plk554@aol.com]

Jim and gang, here is the lowdown on VW clocks....... Some bus and many ghia 
have the same type of movements in the clock but are of different outside 
configurations....IE: early ghia had small clocks, later ones had larger ones 
built into instrument cluster. Even British Leyland had this mechanism in its 
MGs and Triumphs. Now the Type III clocks as we all know have 2 different 
kinds... up to 1972 they were the flyback wheel/contact points set up (the 
most reliable to rebuild). These have the white plastic back on them , held 
on by 3 nuts. The common cause for failure is the mechanical mechanism gets 
gummed up over the years and causes the clock to start to freeze up. This in 
turn puts more of a strain on the electrical points on the flyback, causing 
them to burn and pit, making them over heat, thus causing the low temp solder 
to melt, opening the circuit by causing the spring to pull away. Just 
soldering the spring back together may work for a bit, but it will fail.

The best way to clean these mechanisms is to soak the works in a solvent such 
as paint thinner for several hours. Swish it in the solvent after an hour and 
just before it is removed from it. It then needs to air dry for a few hours 
and then lubed with spray silicon. This will be a dry lube and is very light. 
The contact points on the flyback must be cleaned with TV tuner solvent, 
burnished with plain white copier paper or business card, and then left to 
dry for several hours. This will usually cure the problem with the white 
backed electro/mecahnical clock.

The newer black faced, metal backed clocks are a high failure rate Item! I 
usually can repair one out of 5, as comapered to almost all of the first type 
of clock. There is a small white plastic gear that usually splits and then 
the energy is not transferred to the clock hands. I have found no vendor for 
these gears. Another failure is the wearing of the main drive shaft in the 
metal dimple it rotates in. This binds the mechanism. Sometimes the whole 
thing is just gummed up, thus causing a freeze up. Clean it the same way as 
above. Sometimes the spring breaks and other times the rotating arm just gets 
all out of sink because of electrical parts getting bad.

With all of this said and done, if a late model one fails, get an early 
silver faced one and swap the faces to the black one. A word to the wise, 
WD40 GUMS UP THE WORKS IN A SHORT TIME. It turns to varnish after the lube 
drys out.

Hope this helps... if still scratching your head about these things, fire 
away with the questions.

Pat@Volksclocks

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