Testing Rally Clock
 

Hi,

I have a rally clock, I believe it is from a 1971 Grand Prix, it has the blue casing for blue lights.

So everything is moving great. The seconds hand will do a full revolution until it hit contacts point then of course stops. This is without any power attached to it.

So I hook power up to the clock at the battery. The contacts glow of course since it closed ..... but it doesn't push the mechanism back to start the 60 seconds again???

I'm new to this... what is the expected result with hooking to battery voltage to start?

Should the seconds start regardless of it's position as it relates to contact points?

Where the two arms or "points" meet, is there a spring attached? Can't tell from the pictures.
There should be. Once those two arms contacted when connected the movable arm should snap open therefor rewinding the clock.

That is what I thought, the contacts should hit and then somehow the round wheel should fling all the way back and start the 60 seconds " routine " again and again .. It for sure is not "fling" back.


I attached a blown up picture for you, I don't think any springs are missing???

Let me know if you want a better picture, thanks again.

Ok watched some videos, The relay when it comes back and connects should spring it back. I tested that and it works. So here seems to be the issue.

The seconds hand will not do a full free for all revolution on it's own. I'm suspecting it's getting hung up and needs lubrication.

So I'm gonna pull the second hand off. Then put both hour and min hand at 12 oclock and gently pull them off. Then I'll shoot down some penetrating lubricant or something to that effect?

That should fix it ??

Get some clock oil. You wouldn't put olive oil in your GP's engine, would you?

I was able to get my clock running. I cleaned the point contact surface.

Probably the same oil that is used for side trimmers actually. I think that might work as well. Well either the spring that pulls it back to the contact is a bit weak or the needle tube that holds all the hands is tight or both. I guess oil first the tube area and spin the hands around by hand. hopefully that will help.

I don't think i can replace the spring that actually pulls it contact area that I know of? Hmmmmmmmm

I wonder if one can buy a replacement relay and those contact points? Would be nice to buy quartz conversion kit, if they exist?

The smart move would be to replace the old brass gear clock internals with a modern quartz movement.

They sell those on ebay for $83. FYI You need to have some mechanical skill to install as well as some tiny tools.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Quartz-Cloc...97.m4902.l9144

Hey, thanks! I didn't know those were available! Today I did a little TLC and got some WD40 on it, and some compressed air. The wheel with spring started working flawlessly so i knew i was on track.

I cleaned the contacts which already looked in great shape. I re soldered under the + terminal as well.

I also filed the terminal where the spade is suppose to go. I then hooked it up car battery and you can hear those points hit pretty good. It must really fly it out now. Anyway I taped it up to battery and am gonna run it all night!

Hope for the best!!!! I may of got this going! how long will it last?? no body knows. lol

Great!!! Feels good I'm sure. I like the original movement over the quarts type.

Solid, it had been running for 4 hours, so far it is within 1-2 mins ....

Do you know where I adjust the speed of the wheel that turns, I thought there was a "adjustment area for how fast" ?

No?

My knowledge is not specific to your clock, but many of these type of clocks adjusted their "speed" based on the user setting the time. If the user set the time ahead, the clock assumed it was running slow and adjusted itself to run slightly faster. If the user set the time behind, the clock assumed it was running fast and adjusted itself to run slightly slower. After a few adjustments the clock was running pretty close to right, although nowhere near today's quartz clocks. Down side of this was the twice a year daylight savings time adjustments which would screw up the speed.

oh wow i didn't know that, that is like a "smart clock" , AI. hahahhaha

Well it's been working great 24 hrs and keeping time within a minute so can't argue!!!!!!!!!!!!! so listen this i think is from a 1971 grand prix as it has blue plastic for the lights . I've never ran this before. What are the differences between this clock and a real 69 gto clock?

thanks everyone for your help....

I had a similar experience with the clock in my '69 'bird. It was built without a clock and I found a working one on e-Bay, I cleaned everything up and bench tested it and had it working well. I installed it (not an easy task) and it worked well for a couple of days then stopped. When removed it I discovered that when the points made contact the winding arm snapped open hard enough that the 40 year old plastic case shattered. Bought a quartz movement and it has been working fine for ten years.
The movement I bought required the factory housing, face, hands and adjustment shaft so the money I spent on E_Bay wasn't wasted.

thanks for sharing your story. After a couple days of it running, it is about 15 minutes too fast every 12 hours or so.. So perhaps the lubing of it made it too good. Ah well one more knob to play with when i jump in the car and the fact it moves and works , albeit not accurate was all i wanted. and i got it for free from my good buddy. I swore some video i saw showed where you can adjust speed on the lower part of it. Hmmmmmmm ..... perfection, is it within reach? LOL ... thanks everyone

Just keep adjusting the time every couple days. It will soon regulate.

Ok, keep adjusting.

So I went for installation today, verified 12V at org/blk wire.

Hooked up 1 grey bulb wire to unit w/ bulb. Plugged in battery, no go clock working.

The clock light was fully lit with key out.

So I figured lets check for ground at clock. I ran a black wire from casing to ground, hooked battery cable back up, clock started working.

Sooooo question is how does this clock ground itself? The screws that hold it in place go into the plastic housing.

Looks like I have to make a ground wire system to make this work?

Which is fine I guess but curious as to what the normal way of ground is suppose to work.

I do notice the lamp wire has that "grounding" mounting clip but there is no where on the body of clock for it to go on.

I await answer on how the thing is suppose to be grounded from factory.

This is STD gauge cluster, fyi but most likely was a tach option car with rally gauges.

Thanks everyone! Sure was nice to see needle move though!

Ground straps?

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...7&d=1585965325

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...4&d=1585965243

That really helps, thank you for that sir... It is clear that my car, regardless if it came with rally gauges or std gauges................ the "3rd" pod in the dash whether tach or clock.... does not have the ground strap.... so.... when i look at your pictures.... it seems if you ordered your car with or without a tach or a clock, it had a ground for either GAUGE???????????

Well i will add a ground strap manually , this car's wiring obviously obviously did not think about this...