Well I tried to get the clock, in my 56 working today, it's never been hooked up since I bought the car. Hooked a jumper to it and it ran for a few minutes so I thought great, I just have to run a new wire and fuse to it. Good thing I didn't walk away and leave it hooked to the jumper. I noticed it had stopped and the gl*** started to fog up, so I pulled the jumper off. Looks like I will have to find another, or see if I can get it repaired. BUMMER!!! Paul Selfe.
I'll be interested in any wisdom generated by Paul's post, as, I just pulled my clock out and found it wasn't hooked up.
Old clocks can be a real pain. If you are not into originality, it is very easy to remove the works from the old car clock and replace with one of the quartz mechanisms. They keep great time and run a long time on a AAA battery. You can find the quartz mechanisms on e-bay and also at hobby stores. Bill, Spring, TX
They also sell the quartz clock mechanisms at Wal-Mart in the crafts section and other crafts stores.
You might try taking it apart and filing the contact points. Those old clocks have a set of points in them attachet to a main spring. Sometimes they stick together and the clock won't wind itself. I've heard of guys trying this.
As flyboy89 said they have a set of points inside and they are great at getting burned a little and not making contact or stick, They can be cleaned with a very fine emery cloth or file. Then while you have it out use some spray cleaner to clean out all the dust and junk that gets into them. The points make contact about every 5 minutes or so and then it winds itself back up. But the best thing is to just take the guts out and do the quartz conversion as it is very easy to do I have done 4 or five of them and it's really easy and the quartz is alot more accurate.
Thanks for the insight on points cleaning. I may have burned something inside, as it smelled like it, and fogged up the gl*** (now clear again) until it cooled off. The quartz conversion might be the best bet, I have been thinking of doing the same for my 39 std. because I can't find parts for it either. This will probably be a winter job because I need to unbolt the seat and slide it back for me to crawl under the dash. Too fat and too old! Paul Selfe.
Look at it this way , at least the clock has the correct time twice a day ! that's better than a slow running clock anytime which never has the correct time ! Jim
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