Wheel flipping

I certainly haven't had to do it too many times and that's a good thing too cause it's not one of the fun jobs.
It seems that I've been repairing and restoring these old clocks for so long that I don't see the different jobs as easy or hard anymore, but more as how much of a pain in the neck (or someplace), they are.
Wheel flipping is one of them.
It's almost always the "great wheel" or number one wheel that needs it, but occasionally it is another.  It happens when the actual teeth of the wheel wear from years of rubbing against the adjoining pinion, which is the small gear on the next gear.  Now that the teeth don't mesh together smoothly  it increases the friction reducing the power to the upper gear train.  Many times in the past I've just been able to harvest a good wheel from an identical movement in the orphan pile, but not this one. Just too old and just too rare.

 Here's a pic of the wheel.  The worn teeth are visible, but a little hard to make out.















Here's a better close up showing the ruts worn in the teeth.

This shot of the entire wheel shows the click, the click rivet, click spring, click spring retainer, and the ratchet wheel. All of these pieces need to be removed and then reinstalled on the other side of the wheel. The pain in the neck part is that everything is riveted together so out come the files to get it apart.

Most of the pieces are reusable, but a new click rivet and clickspring retainer wire will have to be made. One additional hole will also need to be drilled in the wheel for the end of the clickspring, but the other holes are also reused.

Here is the back of the spring retainer showing the ends peened down to hold in place.

On the back side of the wheel, all of the riveted ends need to be as flat and as smooth as possible because this is the side that the mainspring rides against and if they stick out too far the coils of the spring could snag on them.













Now it goes back in the clock for a test.