analog clock fix
 

hey has anyone ever repaired one of these analog clocks - what is it that goes wrong with them - i opened one up last night and everything seemed to be in order - gears were ok, had power and ground - there is a metal post that runs from the back of the case to the circuit board - i re-soldered that but it's still a no go - i have repaired vdo auto clocks before (opels mostly) - always analog (never digital) as their pretty straight forward - gears and stuff - anyway i bugs me that this won't work - i'm not really circuit board savvy so if it's an electronic issue i'm pretty much lost - i have another non-working one which i'll open up maybe tomorrow - will let you know what i find - any insight would be helpful - thanks

Never been into a porsche one but every vdo analog clock I worked on the electrical system worked as follows.


Big metal counterweight is the winder. It turns like 120 degrees. You should be able to touch this wheel once you have it apart and the when you manually move it the clock will run for a few minutes if its good.

Big metal wheel has electrical contact on it that closes re single circut when the wheel reaches unwind.

Electromaget is triggered that pulls big wheel back to wound position.

Forgive my fisherprice terms. Im no clock guy but I have repaired a few of these in my childhood. If the electrical magnet itself is bad then its possible to have it rewound. I usually found a break in the circut not in the coil due to vibration.

May not apply. Most of these were mercedes vdo clocks.

what you are describing is exactly what i've done in the past with opel clocks - evidently vdo has gone more electronic since the 70's (how wierd is that) - now it seems there is a chip that pulses a small electric motor every second and runs the gears - i wound up taking the second one apart tonight (late night) - i couldn't see anything wrong with it just like the first one - so i thought what the hell i can't ruin it and gave it a pretty liberal oiling with some light weight air tool oil - i spun the gears by hand and what do you know when i hooked it up it started running again - it could be that after 27 years it just got gunked up - i'm running it from a transformer on the kitchen counter tonight - if it still has the right time in the morning i'll call it good - now if i can get it back together and roll the bezel around it i've got a working clock - i'm going to give the other non-working one the same treatment tomorrow and see if that one comes back to life too - thanks for your input - if anyone wants, i took photos as i took it apart to show how to do it without ruining the bezel - let me know

Great, little more high tech and you wouldn't every hear that distincive click as it rewinds. Pics are great. Do a full write up. The next guy will appriciate it.

update - the clock stopped during the night - oddly enough though it runs upside down - so i spun the faceplate 180 degrees and put it back in the car - it has stopped once today but restarted when i reset the time - so whether it's "fixed" or not i don't know - i'm hoping it will get used to running and stay that way - time will tell