Today I just woken my car up from a 5 month storage. I didn't have the battery on a charger so I was expecting to give it a little boost. When I opened the car door, something caught my eye...my previously inoperative clock was working. Now I'm afraid to touch it let alone set it. I purchased this car last July knowing the clock was inop...what happened?

Maybe if I wait a little longer, the whine in my radio will disappear.

 

Your car is just messing with you. It has to give you a little "win" once in a while to keep you from driving it off a cliff because of all the other problems.

 

Get rid of it. It's haunted.

 

Being a skilled psychic (not psycho!), I will make the clear prediction that:

Within one week (if not by tomorrow morning), that clock will again be correct only twice per day! {once in the AM and once in the PM}

Those GM clocks had an electric solenoid that rewinds the clock every 2 minutes (or so). When the contact points for the solenoid get 'crusty', the connection is bad and it won't rewind. Once in a while, the "Force of the Universe" is just right and that thing will rewind and work....for about two minutes.

 

I had a C2 a long time ago and the clock stopped, as usualy. Back then, no one made any type of repair kits so I took it apart and dropped a dab of solder on those points. Clock started up and ran for the next 7 years, until I sold the car. Please don't ask WHY I sold the car, but it had something to do with owning 2 vettes and having 2 little kids. I chose to sell the WRONG vette.

 

Hmm... Sure you didn't 'repair' one of the contacts with a drop of solder? If you soldered the two together, the clock would never be able to wind.

Either way, I commend your "delving into the unknown". That's my approach when anything malfunctions. Even if it can't be fixed, I have learned something about how it works; and, it doesn't cost me any more to buy that new part! I'm sure that I've saved several hundreds of dollars digging where I shouldn't be...and learned a bunch.

 

Yes, it was a dab on only ONE of the contacts. It was the best running clock I ever had. I have a 2007 dodge Nitro and that digital clock runs 3-5 minutes slow every week. If I could only figure where to use the soldering iron...

 

So, not exactly on topic, but a funny car clock story.

My 82 Camaro had the center console clock. My ex wife looked at it and said "oh, what kind of gauge is that?"

I told her it was a "Time Gauge", a device that accuratly portrayed what stage of revolution the Earth was in relation to the car.

She just looked at me dumbfounded. I said "its a friggen clock"...

 

Sounds like one of those "blond stories"

 

Do you know if it the original clock or a repl.clock ? The original I am told you will know by the second hand going in a ticking motion. Repl clock will move in a sweeping motion. My 72 has a sweeping motion clock which indicates I must have a repl clock. So what I am about to explain only pertains to a repl clock with sweeping motion. I explained this already on this forum about five years ago only to be laughed at and dismissed as some kind of crackpot. Anyway here's the story again. After owning the car for about a year I noticed the clock was no longer keeping good time. Then it stopped altogether. Figured oh well I'll repl it when I get time. I disconnected my battery to do some cleaning in the battery compartment. When I put the battery back in I noticed the clock was running again so I set it to the proper time. Guess what the clock continued to work perfectly for about another year and then did the same thing again. So I disconnected the battery again for about a half hour and hooked it up again and the clock again began to work perfectly. In my six years of owning the car I have done this about five times now with success each time for about a year. SO......if I understand your post correctly your battery went dead you jumped it and now your clock is working. If it's a repl clock I suggest maybe you experienced what I do every year.

 

I had one that worked on and off on a '75.

 

The stock clocks had second hands that moved on every 1/2 second (120 tics per minute). Some aftermarket clocks had second hands with 'smooth' action or one tic per second.

 

Very interesting. My battery wasn't completely dead just not charged enough to energize the starter. I don't exactly recall the movement of the second hand...but I think the movement was smooth as you describe. I don't have the car with me at the moment, yesterday I took it into a Corvette shop to install a new radiator and a tilt steering wheel column. I'll have to check that second hand movement.

 

John,

Just wanted to confirm that my clock is apparently a replacement clock (smooth movement) and began working after a story similar to yours.

Now on to my errant fuel gage...my needle is subject to wide swings...per Wilcox, it sounds like my fuel gage module has a fluid leak. If I fix this...does this mean my clock will stop working?

Regards,
Tom

 

Maybe your clock is celebrating daylight savings time.

 

I don't understand the question. Please clarify.

 

Sorry John...just venting with my poor humor. My next project is the fuel gage. According to Wilcox, my gage may have a fluid leak. When I remove the gage cluster to work on it, maybe the clock, which recently began suddenly operating on its own, will stop working.

Regards,
Tom

 

My '66 corvette has a clock that was working till I disconnected battery. It now runs for 5 minutes then stops (after re-connecting the battery of course). Any ideas?

 

Remove the clock and clean the 'points'.
The clock get its ground from a wavy washer that has to touch the back cover to work properly.

 

Yes. All of the GM clocks in the '60s & '70s were electro-mechanical clocks. They had a mainspring and an escapement/balance wheel system like most wind-up clocks; but it was rewound with an electric solenoid. As the spring unwound, two contacts would come together for an instant, sending current to the solenoid; it would 'fire' and rewind the spring.

So, your "possessed" clock was still wound when the battery was disconnected, and continued to run until the mainspring was fully released. Then, it would sit dormant until the battery was reconnected, when the solenoid would fire and wind it up again.