American PW Illinois Getty Grade 184 Model 4: Install Lever Setting Parts

[Lee02]

I am putting back together this pocket watch and need to learn the trick to installing the setting plate so that it functions with the setting lever as well as the setting wheel on the dial side of the watch. I have tried various ways to engage the cut out in the setting wheel’s pin with the sharp edge on the setting plate while engaging the pin on the setting plate with the setting lever. There must be a trick to this! Please share with me.

Attached are two photos. One shows the setting plate on the gears side of the watch and the other photo shows the setting wheel and its pin on the dial side of the watch.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Jerry Treiman]

Thanks for the invitation to explore this particular mechanism. It was an adventure figuring out how to manipulate everything back into place after all the parts dropped onto my bench. I also have a disadvantage of a broken setting lever spring.

It looks like you have everything in place but your photo of the "gear side" is a little fuzzy. What I think might be called the intermediate setting wheel on the dial side should rise or fall with the motion of the setting lever to engage or disengage the setting function. I am not sure what is not working for you.

 

[Lee02]

Thanks for the invitation to explore this particular mechanism. It was an adventure figuring out how to manipulate everything back into place after all the parts dropped onto my bench. I also have a disadvantage of a broken setting lever spring.

It looks like you have everything in place but your photo of the "gear side" is a little fuzzy. What I think might be called the intermediate setting wheel on the dial side should rise or fall with the motion of the setting lever to engage or disengage the setting function. I am not sure what is not working for you.
View attachment 649402 View attachment 649403

The photos that I included were taken before I took those parts out while I was taking the watch apart. As I explained above, I am having trouble putting the parts back into the watch so that they properly work with one another when I pull the lever out to set the time. I have put the parts together two times, but both times when I pulled out the lever and tried to set time using a bench key, the setting wheels would not turn. Please tell me how you managed to put the parts in so that worked as they should. Thanks!

 

[Jerry Treiman]

I will try to give some directions for reassembly in the order that it worked for me.

1. - take the setting lever off; it will be put back last
2. - dial-side: put the star-shaped lifting spring in its recess, points down against the bottom of the recess
3. - place the intermediate setting wheel on top of the lifting spring
4. - insert the setting pin so that the slot on the pin will face the setting plate on the other side (top) of the plate
5. - this was the tricky part: while depressing the setting pin as much as possible (I used my thumbnail along the green line) tilt the setting plate on the top side into the slot on the side of the setting pin and lower the setting plate onto the boss that it pivots on. This should then keep the setting pin in place. I don’t know if the set lever spring will be in the way for this last operation. If it is, remove the spring first and replace it when the setting plate is in place.
6. - now you can re-install the setting lever on the dial side.

I hope this covers it.

 

[Lee02]

I will try to give some directions for reassembly in the order that it worked for me.

1. - take the setting lever off; it will be put back last
2. - dial-side: put the star-shaped lifting spring in its recess, points down against the bottom of the recess
3. - place the intermediate setting wheel on top of the lifting spring
4. - insert the setting pin so that the slot on the pin will face the setting plate on the other side (top) of the plate
5. - this was the tricky part: while depressing the setting pin as much as possible (I used my thumbnail along the green line) tilt the setting plate on the top side into the slot on the side of the setting pin and lower the setting plate onto the boss that it pivots on. This should then keep the setting pin in place. I don’t know if the set lever spring will be in the way for this last operation. If it is, remove the spring first and replace it when the setting plate is in place.
6. - now you can re-install the setting lever on the dial side.

I hope this covers it.

View attachment 649406 View attachment 649407

Thanks! I will try doing it a little later today and then post the outcome.

 

[Lee02]

Thanks! I will try doing it a little later today and then post the outcome.

I followed your instructions and they worked! The setting lever and its parts now work as they should. One observation. The groove in the setting pin interacts with the edge on the setting plate to cause the intermediate setting wheel to lower a bit when the setting lever is pushed in, thus preventing the time to be set. Then the wheel rises enough when the setting lever is pulled out to engage that wheel with the other time setting wheels.
Some sub-steps that I would add to step 6 about re-installing the setting lever are these:

Using tweezers, push the pin that the setting lever engages as far as possible towards the wheel above the slot the pin fits into. Doing this will ensure the setting lever will be in the closed position during its re-installation and simplify installing the screw that holds the setting lever.