repro 68 clock illumination
 

so
I purchased a repoop clock for a 68 LeMans 4 speed rag top I am working on , and get the dash back in and turn the dash lights on the speedo and gas gauge lite up real nice but the clock barely barely even lights up ,,, even with the shop lights off ...and nearly pitch black.. you still cant see the clock nearly ZERO illumination
wth ????
the bulbs worked fine and lit the original clock ,,, I just reused them and the gray harness , and I had to almost hammer the bulbs sockets into the back of the repop clock ... the power tab doesnt even want to slide into the orange power wire,, jee wiz ..
I kinda find it hard to believe its too tough to make the bulb holes the same size as the original but ... whatever ...got em in
they definetly come on as I popped the lower one out and the inside of the clock is brite as can be with the upper bulb workin... ground the lower bulb to case and it lights up brite too ,,,,
but no light makes it out of the back to the face ... whats the deal !!

any body else have this issue ??

the clock is from our host ... I hate repooped krap

I should have put my nos one in but I wanted to save it for my other convert

bought from our host but its parts place krap
69 digits and style with a 68 back ground what junk

WANTED 68 NOS CLOCK

Sorry to hear about your experience. It seems repro gauges on the whole don't have a great reputation for quality. I don't know how something with such glaring errors like that could be deemed sellable. Good luck with your search.

https://www.thepartsplaceinc.com/ima...s/IN81027G.jpg

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1614059713

clocks
 

well I guess I will put my NOS one in the car .. on the right

but

I still need another NOS 68 clock for my other rally gauge car also

anybody have one ??

I see franks has a dropped one ... for almost 3 times what I paid for my nos

Scott

I saw a thread on the ClassicOldsmobile site where a guy was having the same problem with the repro gauges for the 442's. He did a detailed thread about how he fixed them. As I recall, he had to paint the insides of the gauge housings a combination of white and light blue to match the factory gauge housings. I think he also changed the bulbs to led style bulbs. Looked nice in the end, but shouldn't be necessary when buying new parts!

Here's the link to the thread I mentioned in my prior post, if you're interested in seeing what had to be done to fix the illumination in the repro 442 gauges:

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...p-stuff-18646/

I might be keen on your repop clock. PM when/if avail.

I have an original 68 clock tucked away in the event I decide to go with a hood tach someday. I never realized they have military time & seconds. Thats Kinda cool. I guess I never looked at it very close.

Scott, another avenue might be to have a new overlay made of the 1968 version face and apply it to the aftermarket clock.

I wanted to add a "period looking" tach to the 1948 International box truck I have. It is a straight 6 and only turns 3,000 RPM's, so used a VDO 3,000 RPM tach used for boats.

I had to disassemble the tach and pulled off the face plate and contacted a service in Florida that does gauge refacing and refurbishing. I drew up the design based on an actual International tach used by the larger road trucks of that era. I added a couple items to make it a little more unique.

I emailed the service with scans of what I wanted and he said he could do it using a Cad-Cam program he utilizes. So I mailed him the tach face. He had my scan of what I wanted, and then he first made a B & W replica to make sure the basic features were correct. Then he added the colors and other features and contacted me again with a scan. It was what I wanted, but needed the face to be more tan to match the truck gauges, rather than white. So he adjusted and emailed me the scan. When I said it was good, he made his overlay and mounted it over the supplied tach face plate.

It cost me $50.00 to have the overlay made plus shipping back and forth to Florida. I reassembled the tach, added LED lighting, and installed the tach in the dash of the truck and it works perfect.

I suspect you could go this route and then have on file the face overlay and even sell them to others. Fairly fast service and turn around.

http://www.customdials.com/custom_ga...1-2017_007.htm

good ideas !
but im not wasting my "time" on it
it still wont lite up and look anywhere near an original and it will piss me off every time I look at it
I just need to put the NOS one in and get over it
I will find another or take 1 of the 5 non working 68 clocks I have and go thru em b4 I get the other convert together
I have 1 that runs and quits 1 that did run and a couple non workers
I dont wanna take this dash back out for the 4th time in a week

damm knobs are tight on the adjusters couldnt get em loose ,, of course the repop wasnt even tight,,,
I was going to polish one lense up and probably
buy franks I guess ,,,

I would assume these clocks use the contact points winding system? Does anybody have clocks that work, or are most for looks? I will have to dig mine out to see, but I am assuming its non functioning. I grew up in an era were most if not all of these gm clocks had the points winding components & by the time I was a teenager they were either working quartz clocks or dead points driven & no longer lkeeping time. By the time I was driving in the 80's none of these clocks worked anymore & I kinda forgot about them.

Fast forward to 2008 when I finished a restoration project & installed an NOS clock in a 1977 Chevrolet & I was sitting in the car for the first time & heard that that "click/pop" of the winding mechanism & boy did that sound bring me back to my childhood & my parents cars. One of those things you don't think about I suppose, but that winding sound really hit the nostalgia button for me. :) I ended up wiring a hidden switch to power the clock so it would only get power when I wanted it to run. I figure it only has so many cycles in it & didn't want it to be wasted sitting by itself under a cover. :D

...i need an original 68 clock that has a nice face and hands

As soon as I got home, I had to dig my clock out after all this talk. :D I am wondering if the lighting issue has everything to do with the bezel? the housing is painted baby blue inside, then a very narrow margin for the light to escape between the housing and clock face. That light hits a dished backside of the bezel that is also bright blue & shaped in a way to reflect on to the face. Also the backside of the face looks like some sort of stainless. very reflective. Going to bet the aftermarket does not have that same detail, but just a guess.

I was surprised to find the spring in my clock was partially wound & not down on the contacts as I was expecting to find it. I don't see any broken springs, but thinking it might be just stuck from many decades of sitting. Thinking about a lightweight oil administered from a syringe, but not sure if that will cause more problems as I have no idea if these were originally oiled parts. they look very clean. Hmmmmm.

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1614205839

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1614205864

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1614205864

Do these come up on ebay much? can't say I have ever looked. I'll bet somebody on the forum has one that is decent cosmetically.

dunno about ebay. do suspect a few 1,000 68 clocks sitting in PY member stores.

I see them all the time on Ebay. Sometimes their listed as 68-72 or as 69-72. I think, and I'm sure Scott will verify, that there are three different versions.
I don't know what year, if any, had the numeral 6 added

I bought my 68 clock as a parts only. It was advertised as a 69 and was in pieces. I figured for $30 what could go wrong.
The contacts weren't burned and I gently cleaned the mechanism and lubed it up. Hooked it up to a battery and it ran for several days. Bought a new lens and now have a very nice clock.

BTW the dog hair at the 8 o'clock position has been removed lol.

Well, I carefully applied small amounts of oil on the axles of the gears & with a little help I got things turning again. after a while it was ticking away on its own. I hooked it uo to 12V & away it went! Very happy about that. This clock came from my parts car that was parked in 1982. It possible the clock was working at that time but after decades of sitting the gears got tight. I must have tried it many years ago which would explain why the spring was already wound. Pretty cool to see it go after what was close to 40 years of no use. :)

Decided to use the points in the mechanism to trigger a 12A micro relay that now activates the electromagnet that winds the spring. Also added some diodes to prevent flyback voltage hoping it might help the relay last a little longer. This is working well, however the clock was running a little fast, so I slid the adjuster on the flywheel spring (or whatever its called) & I must have tweaked something. :rolleyes:

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1614368576

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1614368587

Just realized the pictures disappeared from the above post. Getting away from the lighting issue a little, but still clock related.

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1614519257

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1614519265

illumination
 

so here is the clocks with the lights on

and the shop lights off

and the backs of both with all matching new bulbs