Awkward clickspring

[skinnb1]

Can anyone help me with the best way to install this clickspring.

It's from an undistinguished British Ingersoll movement. I'm an amateur increasing my skills by practising and using the internet. I take photographs before dismantling movements but this clickspring was concealed beneath a plate and I'm not at all sure how it was placed in the movement. I can see what appears to be the location of the spring on the underside of the plate. I can get the spring to sit in this location, but when I attempt to install the plate any slight mismovement causes the spring to fly across the room.

I'm also not sure which claw on the click the spring should engage. It may not be obvious that the spring is bent more or less at right-angles at its end.

I feel I must be missing something fundamental. I have used a drop of oil hoping that the surface tension might hold the spring, but the more I experiment the more likely it is that I will lose the spring somewhere in the room. I'm tempted to use something thin to retain the spring in place whilst I move the plate but I don't see how I could then remove that material.

The pictures show the underside of the plate with the spring in place and the movement without the spring but with the plate in place (the gear wheels have been removed for clarity).

 

[Skutt50]

Is the click removable? If so install the plate/spring first and then the click.

 

[skinnb1]

Is the click removable? If so install the plate/spring first and then the click.

Thanks. That did occur to me. I'll have another look and try again. The click itself doesn't look removeable but the pillar it sits on might punch out from below. If it will punch out it is presumably tapered and should go back in. I may just have to use more force than I have done so far. Perhaps that's the only way of progressing.

 

[Chris Radek]

I don't know this movement, but a couple general thoughts come to mind. First, some springs can be inserted after assembly. It looks like this one might slide into its slot, which might be possible after the plate is in place, if that helps.

Second, this is a recoiling click, which is made to let the ratchet wheel turn back several teeth to let a little tension off the mainspring after winding. Keep in mind if you are having trouble seeing how it goes together that the spring only needs to move the click far enough for the first tooth to engage, and then the backward rotation of the ratchet wheel can recoil the click the rest of the way. So when it's properly assembled, the click might be "loose" (not influenced by the spring) for almost all of its rotation.

 

[Skutt50]

The click itself doesn't look removeable but the pillar it sits on might punch out from below

I don't think you should have to punch out the click. That would be too dramatic!

There must be another way.

 

[skinnb1]

I don't think you should have to punch out the click. That would be too dramatic!

There must be another way.

Well thanks. So far it hasn't been too dramatic. You gave me the confidence to try a bit harder and I have punched out the pillar and with it the click. I think they will go back OK. That should make re-installing the plate with the spring in place more feasible. I had tried to insert the spring when the plate was loosely screwed down but could not locate it in the correct place.

It's an interesting bit of design.

Thanks for your help.

 

[skinnb1]

I did, optimisticaly or foolishly, try to install the train bridge with the spring in place but inevitably it was dislodged by the slightest movement. I then realised that with the click and its pillar out of the way it was possible to slide the spring in under the bridge. A screw holding down the bridge doubles as a restraining point for the spring. So thanks to both respondents the problem has been solved although I have yet to reinstall the click and its pillar.