Currently restoring an AWA 563MAY clock radio of 1954.

Radio side of things are good, nothing major required.
Im at the stage that I can put the clock back into circuit and test. However, the clock motor terminals read open circuit with a multimeter. I have the service manual but no mention of resistance of the motor. The buzzer reads about 3.8K.

What should I expect to see? Its made by Smiths.

Im not all that confident I can strip the clock down to chase a burnt out coil etc. Theres lots of gears in there!

ben

I love the title " Clock radio not clocking."! That gave me a good laugh!

Chris

I have done a couple of motor repairs for clock radios and a bakelite 1940's clock. You may find that the coil will come out without having to touch the gears and this may be the only fault.
The original winding is thousands of turns of very fine wire so that it can operate on 240V, however I rewound the coil with heavier wire and ran it from a separate transformer on about 9V.
You cannot use the radio transformer as that would need the power to be on at all times.
Harold

It's been my experience with noticing ads for these old clock radios, and seeing them at swap meets, etc, that more often than not the radio still works but the clock has given up the ghost.

Thus, I guess trying to find one to use as a parts donor would be difficult.

I don't know of anybody who does such repairs, so a DIY effort as suggested by Gandhn might be the way to go.

The most common problem in electric clocks in the 50's AWA radio is not the electrics, but a gear with a worm-drive made of brass or something similar that wears out.

When this gear starts to wear out the clock becomes quite noisy, then after a while will fail completely.

If someone could be found to fabricate this gear most of the problems in these clock units would be solved.

If someone could be found to fabricate this gear most of the problems in these clock units would be solved.

My guess is that finding a clock restorer who can do that sort of thing is more likely than finding one who can deal with an electric motor repair.

What about Silver Springs, see service directory?

Thanks all. Some good ideas to investigate.
Ben

There are still people around here that repair mechanical clocks.

Sometimes the worm was hardened & the hob bakelite. That was also common in some dial drives as well, same issue.

Marc

Fixed!!

Looked at the clock closely, worked out I could remove the coil. Bit of gentle persuasion and the coil slid out of the motor.
Undid the layer of tape, the lead to the end of the coil fell off.

Soldered a new wire onto the coil, measured about 11K of resistance.

Reassembled after cleaning gears and lubricating, away it goes.

It isnt all back in the radio properly yet, but over a period of 2 minutes it seems pretty acurate. The minute hand moves, not sure about the hour hand yet, But I cant see why not.

Only one question remains. How do I adjust the time?. I can adjust the alarm time, but not the time itself. Nothing seems obvious.

Ben

There were three controls popping out through the front panel on this model. I am not sure what each one did but one would certainly be for the time adjustment, then one for the alarm time and the other perhaps a sleep function? I only have the clockless version of this set.

Left one is labelled 'slumber'
Middle one is power on/off/alarm
right one is alarm set.

I have a feeling that the slumber knob turned anti-clockwise may speed up the hands to adjust time.

I'll try once its all back together

I am looking at this one, which you posted in another thread. I can't give any more clues or suggestions but yeah, trial and error may be the only way.

Are there any controls on the back?

No controls on the back. The radio in question is the black one to the left of that grey one, but apart from colour they are identical.

Im on to something here. At the back of the clock mechanism is a thin shaft that protudes out the back of the plastic 'cage' the clock is mounted in. It lines up with a hole in the back of the cabinet.

I assume that there was a shaft extension and knob that was at the back of the radio.

Both of my examples of this radio are without the shaft/knob.

And of course it is rusted up! A couple of days soaking in rost-off hopefully will free it up.