Clock challenge, electromagnet rewinding problem

[Timo AH]

Greetings from Finland. I have 230 sl -66 and my electro-mechanical clock is not working properly. When the clock points close, the electromagnet rewinds the mainspring but not fully. It will take about 30 sec and then rewinds again. Based on the good instructions found from tech manual, rewinds cycle should be 1 min or longer. When I manually rewind the clock will run about 2,5 min before the contacts close. I found this because the clock was not working when I bought the car. I opened the clock and cleaned the contacts and it begun to run but rewind cycle is very short. It can be visually seen that contacts will open just a bit. I have followed all the discussions and trouble shooting without solving the challenge. Any ideas?

[Nicolas Aristodemou]

Timo your best bet would be to send it to a specialist repair shop to have it professionally repaired. Else if you feel adventurous you might try to disassemble clean  lubricate all moving parts with special clock lubricating oil. I think the fact that the clock requires frequent recharge denotes a dirty mechanism.

[zoegrlh]

There are several repair shops here in USA. Had mine repaired by David Lindquist, California,562-698-4445, did a great job and clock is still running fine for last 15 years. Also Pali Alto Speedometer, California, and Overseas Speedometer, Austin Texas. Might want to try these.
Bob

[GM]

Steve Lindquist's business is closed - he passed away last year.
PA Speedo no longer does clock repairs.
You might want to try Classic Car Clock in Houston, TX
832-315-9961
http://classiccarclock.com/index.html
Jeffrey runs a small shop but he does great work and he's very fair - he just repaired mine.

[Timo AH]

Thanks Nicolas, I agree the best way is to send it to a specialist repair shop.
Regards
Timo

[Nicolas Aristodemou]

You are welcome Timo, just be aware of cowboys and people who would want to change the lock  mechanism into quartz. Plenty of info on reputable repair shops in this forum 

[Rahul]

Just wanted to add a +1 for Jeffrey Read @ Classic Car Clock, as mentioned by GM.

Pricing was extremely reasonable, for a full service and clean of my mechanical clock and he turned it around in a week. I found other vendors quoting nearly twice the price with a 3-5 week turnaround time.

[Shvegel]

I did the repairs to mine.  I found something on line about adding a diode and capacitor to the system to keep the points from burning up.  It sound like you are not getting the amperage to fully charge the electromagnet that winds the clock.  I would clean the points and make sure the movable point isn't touching the spring housing when it winds. 

https://www.benzworld.org/threads/1972-vdo-kienzle-clock.1545131/