Help with Howard Miller Grandfather Clock

[1geo]

I have a Howard Miller Grandfather Clock model 610-974, Satinwood model. I occasionally work on mantel and wall clocks but never a grandfather clock. My question is how do I remove the movement from the case. The case on this clock is a wodden frame with glass front, sides and top; its quite stricking. The movement sits on a wooden support that spands the width of the case. There are two screws in the bottom of this support piece, one on each side. It appears that If I remove the two screws the movement should be free of the case; is this correct? Or is there some other way to remove the movement. The movement is marked Howard Miller MS002. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dick Feldman]

1geo,

Most HM movements will come out the front of the case.

If there is a wood surround around the dial with 4 Philips screws, remove those. Slide the surround up and tip the bottom toward you, then slide it down and out. With some cases, you may have to take the screws out of the top door hinge.

The hands then come off. Remove the nut from the minute hand and pull the hand directly toward you. The hour hand is a friction fit on the hour tube. It pulls straight out as well. If the clock has a sweep second hand, it pulls off too.

The dial is released by rotating four levers that lock the dial posts on the inside of the front clock plate. Look in the side of the case. The dial posts have a groove and the levers lock into that groove. Then the dial comes straight out.

Some movements are attached to the seat board from the front with screws-- ones that take a square screw driver head. That has never seemed to be a smart design to me The square measures approximately .120 inches [3.05 mm.] flat to flat. I bought a driver for those and have never used it on anything else. The two screws that you saw that go into the clock movement pillars are called seat board screws--Take those out to free the movement.

Or, you may be able to remove two vertical hex screws on either side of the seat board (the horizontal board that the movement is mounted to.) and remove the seat board with the movement.

From there, the movement should slide directly out the front of the case. By now you know that the weights and pendulum should have been removed. You may have to hold the chime/strike hammers back from the chime rods on the way out to prevent interference (masking tape works well for that).

Now that you know how, why do you want to take it out of the case?

Best Regards,

Dick

 

[shutterbug]

The short answer is "yes"

 

[1geo]

Thanks for the replies. I want to remove the movement to clean and oil it. From what I see it is the same movement that is in their wall clocks and since there are no tube chimes in this Grandfather Clock, only rod chimes, once removed it should not be any more difficult to clean and oil then the wall clocks I currently work on. The big difference is the units I work on have springs where this is driven by cable and weights. It would be helpfull to have a skematic or exploded view of the movement and tomorrow I will contact Howard Miller and see if one is available. If anyone knows of another source for the exploded view please let me know. Thanks again for the replies, Geo.

 

[shutterbug]

I assume you know how to dismantle and reassemble then? You really can't clean movements without doing that.

 

[Dick Feldman]

Geo,

I think you will not find any exploded views.

Yes, the movement is similar to the mantle clocks you are used to. You will, however, run into something new. Read up on STOP WORKS. These prevent the cables from playing out all the way and unhooking from the drum. They also will prevent the weights from being drawn up too far against the seat board. These can be a real pain to set up the first time. Everything will look OK except one train may continually stop in the same spot a couple of days after winding. The movement may also throw you a curve with a night shut off.

Most modern movements will run from 20-30 years if they are cleaned and oiled regularly. If they are not maintained, they will usually run for 20-30 years. Wink, Wink.

Best Regards,


Dick

 

[Willie X]

Good idea to remove the weights and pendulum, then loosen the two seat board hold-down bolts about 1/4" before you proceed any further. This way you can shift the movement back a bit by sliding or tilting. This is a must on some models to prevent damage to the hand-shaft when removing the dial surround board.

Willie X

 

[1geo]

OK, I finally got the movement out of the case. So I thought I write this up for prosterity. On my Howard Miller Grandfather Clock, model 610-974, you have to remove the Dial before you can remove the movement. Fortunately, Howard Miller made it easy to do. The cross brace that holdes the movement, at least in my clock, is not removable but is a solid part of the frame. The movement is held to the cross board by two L brackets that can only be accessed by removing the dial and two T brackets that can be accessed from the bottom of the board. So the key is removing the dial. The dial is held to the movement by four posts that have quick release ends secured by levers on the front plate. These levers are easily accessed with the dial and movement in place. Below is a step by step procedure for removing the movement.
1. Remove the weights, Check and make sure the center shaft is screwed on tight. On mine one was ready to come apart.
2. Remove the pendulum.
3. Remove the hands.
4. Next move the four levers on the front plate that are holding the posts that extend from the back of the dial, Pull the dial forward and it come right off.
5. Now The L brackets are obvious, remove the two screws holding the bracket to the cross board
6. Now under the cross board there are two T brackets that screw into the two lower plate posts of the movement. They have slotted heads so you can use a screw driver to unscrew them. Once These are removed the movement lifts up and out.
From start to finish the operation takes no more then 10 minutes. I removed the movement, partially cleaned it (I did not touch the stop works) oiled the movement and I have to release the ratches on the cables and pull then out about a foot, When I bought it the cables were wound up tight against the bottom board. Since this is my clock and not a client’s so I feel comfortable only doing half a cleaning job.