jimcabc

In an effort to perserve the battery while needing to park my '87 911 for six weeks, I disconnected the battery. When I returned recently and hooked the battery back up, I found the clock has stopped working. I've had the car for about 5 years and the clock always worked (and kept perfect time at that). I also changed out the battery last year, so I did not expect any problems. So far I've checked the fuse, which is fine, and jiggled the hand set ****, which did nothing. I plan on taking the clock out to take a look. I've checked the Pelican site that has repair instructions for the 914 clock, and it sounds like my car may have the type of clock with the low temp solder that acts as a fuse. If that isn't it, I suppose it's time for professional repair.

Questions: How common is this issue? What is the likelihood the clock has the low temp. solder of the Pelican article, and is North Hollywood Speedometer the place to send it for a fix? Thanks in advance!

Jim
'87 911 cabrio
3X black

pgrunwald

I had a stopped clock in my '87. I bought a working clock on eBay for $80 and sold the broken one on eBay for $35. It just took a month to get a good deal on eBay but if you are patient...

Hollywood wanted >$100 to fix the broken one.

Paul
-----------
'87 Targa

Dan Cobb

I know for afact that the clock in my 74 had this low temp solder 'fuse' and the one in my 84 does not.
The older clock is a Kienzle (sp?) and the newer one is a VDO.
Mine has become intermittent over the past 6 months or so. I found several times that wiggling the ground connection helped, but it has always been for a limited time (hours, not days).
There does not seem to be a good way to open this clock up and make any inspection or repairs without some serious effort. I'll be replacing it or sending it out with my speedo as soon as the cost is worth the inconvenience.
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bourgeois911

I cut the back off of my VDO and installed the guts of a $5 quartz clock I bought at Walmart. I epoxied the original hands to the new ones and used silicone to mount the new, cheap, much more accurate movement to the original housing. You'd have a hard time telling it isn't original from the drivers seat.

jimcabc

Wow bourgeois911, your solution to this problem is awesome ;-)

Thanks to all for your advice. My next problem is just getting the clock out. My weak hands do little more than budge it. Yearly service with my P-wrench is coming up, so may just let him do it!

Dan Cobb

Push it out from inside the trunk.
Another option that might be available is a quartz upgrade for the earlier models. Since the face and hands are the same, I'm guessing it would work about the same as the Walmart option with less customizing required.
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bourgeois911

It's pretty easy to get the instruments pushed out from the rear, they are held in place by the rubber sleeve you see from the front. I used a Dremel to remove the entire back of the clock and yes, it takes some work to get it mounted and aligned so it doesn't look totally awful. You'll also have to get the light bulb attached to the whole mess. I was motivated to do this by the $110 price tag I saw for a replacement on Ebay.

jimcabc

Thanks again - I'll try to tackle this Saturday!

Jim
'87 911 Cabrio
3X black

Mike C.

Bourgeois911, does the Walmart clock you bought run on 12V ? I'd like to do what you did on an early 944. I suppose if the right resistor is installed in parallel with the clock the voltage can be dropped. I imagine most of the $5 clocks run on less than 12 V. Was this an issue with your conversion?

Mike C.

bump

bourgeois911

Sorry, missed this one. The cheapie movement I stuck in the old VDO housing is powered by a "AA" battery so ther is no 12V connection. The only wiring I re-used was for the instrument light. It's a relatively simple thing to replace the AA cell if/when it expires.

Mike C.

Thanks. It's not quite so easy to access on the 944 console so I'll have to figure out how to step down to 1.5 V.

bourgeois911

So, the 944 gauges don't come out the front like a 911? From this article they appear to come out the front, but I've never seen how the 944s actually work. That is why I thought it was no big deal to use replaceable batteries and a cheap quartz movement. Of course, being a cheap bastard had a lot to do with it also.

Mike C.

Well I did some more digging on the Pelican Forum and found a post from 2001 where a clock was behaving intermittent but with temperature; it would work when warm out and not when cold. Before my clock went completely belly up it used to do this. Well this guy apparently had an O-scope and determined that the electrolytic capacitors are bad. He replaces them and is good to go. I bought replacement capacitors at Radio Shack for a grand total of $2.78 (for 2 of them), soldered them in and bingo! Now there's cheap for you...