Vette – July 2019

Q:

H i. I have been a longtime sub-

scriber and I am interested in

asking a question to your Technically

Speaking staff. I have a 1967 Corvette

and the clock will only work when I tap

the face of the clock.

My car has been judged and has an

NCRS Top Flight award. I want to keep

my car as original as possible so I do

not want to have the inner workings of

my clock converted to quartz.

I love working on my Corvette and

get great satisfaction when I can fix it

myself. My question: Is there an easy

repair that I could perform to repair my

clock? I don’t like the idea of having to

ship my clock through the mail to get it

repaired.

Thanks,

Bob, from Florida

A:

Bob, the internal workings of the

1963-’82 Corvette clocks are simi-

lar. The original Corvette clocks are analog,

spring-wound with an electric winder that

is supposed to reset the spring mechanism

approximately every minute. This electric

winder depends on a set of 12V contact

points to close every minute to reset the

winder 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

That’s over 525,000 times a year.

When the contact points close a coil

will kick the points open, giving us this

one minute of run time before the process

repeats itself. If the coil becomes weak,

the points will not kick open as far, giving

a shorter run time between kicks. To test

this, if you have the clock apart, you can

power it with 12V and a ground and watch

this process and see how long it takes

between the kicks. If the clock is installed

in the car you can hear a click every time

the coil resets the winder.

Remove the Clock

From the Dash

It’s not hard to get the clock out of the

Time is standing still

dash. If you have large hands or don’t like

to work without seeing what you are doing

you will probably be more comfortable

removing the glovebox and glovebox liner.

On a restored car, the less I need to

remove means the less that can become

damaged so I simply loosen up the glove-

box liner and move it back to give me

enough access to put my hand in there and

reach the back of the clock.

You will need to unplug the clock’s two-

wire connector and then remove the two

light bulb receptacles by gently pulling

them out. The clock is held in place by two

clips. With your hand, find the clock retainer

clips and push the end down and slide it off

of the clock’s attaching knob. Gently pull

the clock out of the dash. You may need to

slightly angle the clock so the raised area

where the clock is staked together does not

damage the dash paint when it is removed.

Accessing the

Clock Mechanism

First, note how the clock is aligned, you

may want to take a sharpie and make a

mark on the rear housing where the 12

o’clock is indexed on the front housing.

The clock’s chrome set screw will need

to be removed, hold the black part of the

stem with a pair of pliers and unscrew the

chrome set screw counterclockwise with

your hand. If the set screw will not move by

hand you may need to use a second pair of

pliers to remove the chrome set screw.

Use a pair of small needle-nose pliers or a

flat-blade screwdriver to open the crimped

areas where the two halves of the clock

housing are attached. Carefully separate the

two halves. You may need to use a pocket

screwdriver to gently pry up the inner sec-

tion and start the process.

The power terminal will need to be

removed. Before removing, mark and take

note of how the terminals are aligned. They

will need to be put back in the same place

so the clock’s power source plug can be

attached correctly.

Common Problems

The contact points build up corrosion

over time. You can take a points file and

file the corrosion off of the points. Be

careful not to file the points themselves

too far down.

Note: If the points need to be replaced, I

BY JAMES BERRY (^) I PHOTOGRAPHY BY THE AUTHOR
Technically Speaking
12 VETTE 19.