tracerjack
Registered User
This chimer is marked Jacques, but I have learned their movements were made by other companies. Since it is also marked ‘Baden’, I would say it is German.
Other than extremely dried oil, there was nothing wrong with the strike or chime trains. Both work perfectly. It is the time train that is failing. I did have it running for 8 hours, but the amplitude was weak and overswing minuscule. It has a deadbeat escapement. The teeth were hitting the dead face, then sliding properly through the impulse face. Drops looked even, but it struggled to keep going. There was tightness in the center arbor through the front plate that I addressed, so then looked for worn pivot holes. With 2.5 mm thick plates, the only pivot hole that showed the tiniest bit of slop was the EW back plate. I bushed it, and the EW now spins with just pretension on the mainspring. One click and it is flying, so I think there is plenty of power. This is what concerns me.
If you saw that odd, obviously not original screw, would you conclude the only place left for me to examine is the pallets, that someone before me has messed with them. Before I try my first attempt at adjusting the pallets of a deadbeat, it would give me a nice dose of confidence if others here felt I had checked off all the other reasons for the time train failing to run and this is the next logical place to examine.

Other than extremely dried oil, there was nothing wrong with the strike or chime trains. Both work perfectly. It is the time train that is failing. I did have it running for 8 hours, but the amplitude was weak and overswing minuscule. It has a deadbeat escapement. The teeth were hitting the dead face, then sliding properly through the impulse face. Drops looked even, but it struggled to keep going. There was tightness in the center arbor through the front plate that I addressed, so then looked for worn pivot holes. With 2.5 mm thick plates, the only pivot hole that showed the tiniest bit of slop was the EW back plate. I bushed it, and the EW now spins with just pretension on the mainspring. One click and it is flying, so I think there is plenty of power. This is what concerns me.

If you saw that odd, obviously not original screw, would you conclude the only place left for me to examine is the pallets, that someone before me has messed with them. Before I try my first attempt at adjusting the pallets of a deadbeat, it would give me a nice dose of confidence if others here felt I had checked off all the other reasons for the time train failing to run and this is the next logical place to examine.