Cuckoo clock problem

[twoess]

I’ve never had this before. A woman brought in a Cuckoo Clock, 2 weight. Went through the whole thing. The clock plate pivot holes were bushed, they pretty much all were very oval. All original – had not been bushed before. I used my Bergeon Machine. But the Fly wheel will not mesh correctly it wants to bind. If not for that, it would work great. It is the original fly. Could this have been done at the Factory. I would’nt think I would have done it wrong, then again?. Never had this trouble before. Any suggestions, this is driving me crazy. I have another movement which is exactly the same in my inventory. So could use that if needed.

[willofiam]

Howdy, good question and brings up a good point, It would benefit us if we checked out the movement first and try identifying all problem point beforehand, just a thought. I would only be guessing but are the front and back plates square with each other???? are there any pinions worn on the fly???? do you have a depthing tool???? am I going crazy??? 😯 or getting old???? 😥 is the fly arbor bent???? or if you look down thru the movement are the arbors parallel with each other??? some quick things to check, let us know what else you may find…God bless, William

[Bob Tascione]

Hi Twoess,
Since the holes on the strike side were worn then the fly would have been working fine when it came from the factory. If you bushed the holes for the fly and the wheel that drives it then It’s possible that your bushings are a little off and you’ve lost the correct center distance between your fly and driving wheel centers. One thing to check for as William pointed out would be a bent arbor or pivot. If the fly pinion (not the fly itself since it may continue spinning after everything stops) is binding on the same leaf each time. then your problem is most likely with the fly arbor, pivot or leaves. If that varies then check the driving wheel to see if it’s stopping at or near the same location. If so then you may want to check for bent pivots, arbor and bent teeth of the driving wheel. If the jamming is random then the pivot centers would be suspect. If you don’t have a depthing tool then you can test things by opening the fly pivot hole on the side nearest to the pinion a little with a reamer to see if the jamming stops or at least gets better. If so then you can go to a bushing with a larger outside diameter and move both of the ‘Plate Holes’ in the correct direction and ream for the larger bushing. Note: You will want to put a new bushing in with the correct pivot hole size rather than leave the hole larger from testing or else the fly arbor might ‘bounce’ during the strike sequence.

Hope this helps Tim and Good Luck!
Let us know how things go,

Bob

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