1970s '75 Eldorado Dash Clock

[benji808]

Hello!

I'm reaching a decision point on if I'm going to try to get a working clock in my '75 Eldorado again.

My experience so far, over two cars:

1) Bought used clock on ebay, cleaned and oiled it. It lasted for ~6 months
2) Same thing again, lasted for ~1 year this time
3) Bought professionally restored clock from The Clock Works (http://www.clockwks.com/) for several hundred $$$. It lasted about 6 months, but I didn't get it back to them before the 12 month warranty expired. I tried to repair myself, with no lasting success.

Has anyone succeeded in getting these clock to run for a longer period of time? Any alternative models that fit the same spot on the dash but are more reliable?

Any thoughts appreciated!

[Big Fins]

Mine in the '76 Eldorado keeps perfect time. Still the factory original. I also don't change it for these idiotic time changes.

[TJ Hopland]

What kills most of the original clock designs is low voltage as in when a car sits and the battery gets low.  The most common design put simply has a little electrical solenoid that has to activate briefly to 'wind' it / provide the energy so the clock mechanism can do its thing.  When the voltage gets low this solenoid thing gets stuck on and since its not designed to be constantly on it overheats and fails.    The 'quartz' conversions that can be done on many models is supposed to solve that problem. 

[Big Fins]

But unless you have that special tool to remove the A/C vents and get to the screws holding the dash cap on, it's a royal nightmare. Once those little tabs are broken on the vents it's near impossible to remove them without breaking something else.

[TJ Hopland]

Did you catch this thread?  Perhaps yours had the same gear failure?

https://forums.cadillaclasalle.club/index.php?topic=176566.0


Was there ever a quartz version of the 'digital' clock?   I thought I remembered seeing them with the word quartz on them but looking at photos I don't see that so am I remembering wrong?  I was thinking maybe my 78 had that?  Or did that upper data center mechanical clock stay an option into the 80's if you didn't get the fancy radio that had the electronic clock? 

[benji808]

Thanks for the thoughts! I did see the thread in the 3D print. Very cool, but I don't think that's the part I'm having an issue with. It looks like Eldo clocks were the same at least 74-78, and I believe they were quartz, although not sure how to confirm that.

I'll likely get another one and see if I can get it running. Here's the guide I've used in the past:
https://www.eldorado-seville.com/files/74clockrepair.php

[TJ Hopland]

Does the owners manual give the procedure for adjusting the accuracy?  It had to do with pulling or pushing the set knob in a specific direction and number of times depending on which way and how bad it was drifting.  I don't believe the quartz ones had that procedure since you then had the quartz to keep a steady pace.

Maybe I'm wrong in that the original quartz clocks didn't have the low voltage killing the coil problems?  Maybe its just the more modern quartz conversions that don't have that problem?

A fun option someone could play with today would be an E ink display.  Those are most commonly seen as price tags on store shelves.  Pretty small and cheap and they really don't look like electronic displays.   

[Big Fins]

I wonder if the history of storage is the reasoning for many older car clocks still working. IE: my car was always garage kept and kept with a Battery Tender connected. When I replaced the battery it was a 10 year old Die Hard. I only replaced it because the age was very questionable for a lead acid battery.

[alzink]

I had the clock on my 55 rebuilt by Clock works and it worked fine for a few months....then it died. Sent it back and they repaired it agin and it lasted for two months. Discussed the issue with them and they indicated it should be shut off when the car isn't used every day. Third time I reinstalled it again within warranty and wired it. with a toggle switch in the glove compartment. We'll see how that goes. Really inconvenient to have to reset it every time the car is used. The people at Clockworks are very nice, but for some reason the clock can't be rebuilt to meet original specifications to run all the time 

[TJ Hopland]

Interesting to hear that they say you should not leave them on.  I don't recall that in the brochure.  Was this a stock rebuild or a conversion? 

[alzink]

This was a rebuild
Perhaps it's just the 55 era
On the last return (3) they highlighted with yellow marker the need to turn off when not in use. I'd like to find a quartz replacement