Cuckoo Cuckoo clock will not cuckoo but runs

[Nuke Laloosh]

Hello. I am new to this forum. First post. I did a search but couldnt find anything on this subject.

I am building a custom cuckoo clock as a project with new Regula movement. I have everything ready to assemble but the movement will not push the bellows to make it cuckoo. It clicks at pre-strike, but when its time to strike, it does not.

I detached the bellows from movement while on the stand and ran it for 3 days and everything works fine with the wires unattached to bellows. It seemed that maybe the bellows weight was too much so i removed the weights from bellow tops and reattached them to see. Same thing happened... they would not cuckoo. Tried switching weights to 1500 with no luck.

Any ideas? Im confused since its a new movement. Clock runs flawlessly otherwise. Its a Regula 34 with 2- 1260 weights.

Thanks,
Nuke

 

[gleber]

Does it lift the bellows at all? First thing that comes to my mind is that the rods are too long and it can't lift that far without encountering too much resistance.

Tom

 

[Nuke Laloosh]

The bellows seem to start to lift at pre-strike maybe 1/16"... thats it. No, not lifting too far. In fact, i shortened the wires about 1/2".

It almost seems like the wire is binding, but i checked... they are free and loose.

Can the angle of the wires to the bellow have anything to do with it? They are not exactly perpendicular like a normal clock. These are more at an angle at 80 degrees or so.

Since it runs ok and lifts fine without bellows attached, im assuming theres an issue with my setup.

 

[harold bain]

Time to take a few pictures to show us how you've installed the bellows. Can you manually lift the bellows wires enough to hear the cuckoo?

 

[shutterbug]

I think Harold is hinting that you might have the wire attached wrong at the bellows. I suspect he's right. A pic will clear up that question.

 

[Chris D]

May not be the bellows. What about the bird? Does it come out? If the wire or the bird are binding somewhere it will not cuckoo because it's still trying to push the bird out.