Clock Fault

[nineleven911]

Ever since i have owned my 911, the clock has always intermittently stopped working. Everytime i am in my car i was constantly reseting the time. So i decided to pull it out and take it all apart to fix the problem.

I have put it on test and waited for it to fault (sometimes it takes 2hour, sometimes 2 days). At first, i thought the problem could be electrical, but when on test the clock motor is still spinning, but the time doesn't change. So i rounded it down to a gearing issue. All the gears seem to be intact and don't look damaged at all.

has anybody had a similar issue? or could anybody suggest what i should do next?

also the clock only seems to fault when it is set up at a near perfect 90 degree angle.

[dd74]

Mine does that. Hasn't lately, though. I thought the clock ran on a battery. It's really my favorite gauge on the dash. Is the clock a gauge, btw?

[Early_S_Man]

I think the '77s all had a quartz movement VDO clock from the factory ... though it could have been changed out for an older spring-motor clock over the years.

Here is a tech article that may be of help:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/mult_vdo_clock_repair/mult_vdo_clock_repair.htm

[Ken911]

mine is a vdo quartz movement and it does the same thing never worked worth a crap, I havent bought a replacement because I'm afaid that it will not work any better

[nineleven911]

Yes, I have read that article, it was very helpful when pulling it apart and getting to the inside, but unfortunately the problem that occurred in that article, i think is a little different from my fault. I have looked over all the teeth on all of the gears and they look to be in great condition.

And Yes, it is a VDO quartz movement clock. I don't really want to buy a replacement either, but i thought if someone knew of a simple solution to fix it, then i would just fix it my self for low or no cost at all.

[wcc]

Mine did this EXACT same thing. Granted it was my fault so I knew what had to be done to fix it. In my case I put on white faces and when I re-installed the hands they rubbed on each other just a touch. Sometimes it would stop and other times it wouldn't. I took it back out and made sure there was a little space between them and now it seems to be fine.

I would check to see if the hands are bent, warped or somehow rubbing on each other or the face or glass.

Good luck and let us know what you find out.

[bourgeois911]

I went the really cheap route and bought a 5 buck quartz clock from KMart. I used a Dremel to remove the rear of the old VDO clock, inserted the cheap but much more accurate clock movement and used the old dayglo hands. It's powered by a single 1.5V AA battery and from the front you can't tell the difference, except the time is now always correct.

[allaircooled]

I just glued the hands to my clock to point at 9:11. If I need to know the time I just look at my watch. This is until I figure out what gauge I want to put in its place.

[ianc]

If the clock is still running but the hands are not moving, then something is slipping: either the gears on their shafts, or the hands.

If you can run the clock out of its casing, you may be able to track this down further. A dab of superglue on the shaft?

ianc

[nineleven911]

Originally posted by ianc
If the clock is still running but the hands are not moving, then something is slipping: either the gears on their shafts, or the hands.

If you can run the clock out of its casing, you may be able to track this down further. A dab of superglue on the shaft?

ianc

clock has been on test out of casing and inspected many times whilst faulting and not faulting. Can't pin point where slipping occurs, as the end gears move etremely slow. I will however inspect the shaft. Thanks

[Aerkuld]

Out of interest, I had the clock stop working completely in my 87 Carrera. When I took it out to look at it, I discovered that the actual clock mechanism inside the housing is exactly the same as that on the early 944. I would assume the 924 would be the same. The difference is that the housing on the 911 is much bigger to accomodate the larger clock face.

You do have to take the clocks apart to swap the internals, but the 944 clocks are very cheap on somewhere like e-bay and are in relatively abundant supply.

Mine works fine now!

[nineleven911]

Thanks everyone for your help. This fault must have been a common one. I like the glue the hands to say 9:11, nice work