My Grandmother's Old Clock

[beekeyknee]

My Mother gave me this last Christmas. It belonged to her mother. My Mom took it to a clock repair guy and he put a new cord on it but that's all he did. I had to shake it to make it start running, so I took it apart and sprayed some Tri-flow spray into the escapement. That helped it for awhile, but the motor is worn and noisy. It has a copper encasement with a little pinion sticking out of it. It's a little induction motor with a smaller round raised portion protruding from the back. That's where the rotor is and it pushes down into a laminated field coil. There's no direct electrical connection. There's a motor escapement inside the case that drives the pinion. I suspect the gears are worn and/or need lubrication. I guess I will try and find a strategic location and drill a small hole in the case to introduce a little lubricant. I will have to make my best guess as to not hit anything important on the inside. A dentist drill would come in handy about now. The second best idea I can think of is a small bit on a Dremel Tool. I'll have to go slow. On the back there is a partial label that reads, General Electric Kitchen Clock. Model 2H08. Someone wrote the date 2/9/55 on the label. I would post a picture of the motor, but it's in the clock and I didn't feel like taking it apart right now. It's a cool clock. When the power goes off a little red dot drops down to let one know the clock needs to be reset. One like it was in the movie, Driving Miss Daisy. I found this post on ebay of someone trying to sell a clock like this. He says it was supposed to be white, but this one is green and I know it hasn't been repainted. The one in the movie was the same green color. I remember this was a common color in kitchens back then. He sounds full of it to me.

 

Now that I have been looking around, it seems they came in several colors.

[this post was last edited: 5/10/2014-01:14]

 

[d-jones]

Hey Brian

I think he made the comment about the original white color because his red clock had been white when it was new. You can see a bit of the original color in the view with the clock removed from the case prior to repainting, so the comment needn't be applied to all clocks of this type, just his. Nice looking clock though. It looks really well built. I wouldn't mind having one of those in my kitchen at all. I especially like that shade of green on yours.

 

[polkanut]

Brian,

It looks as if your GE Telechron clock was made between 1945-1949 according to the info I've found.  The model name is "Garcon".  I love the look of it, clean & simple.

http://www.telechron.net/postwar/2h08postwar.htm

 

[whirlcool]

We had one of these above the sink in my parents first house. I think the case was yellow. I remember looking at it when I was in third grade, it always said 4:30p when I came home from school in the winter.

I believe my parents got it as a wedding present, they were married in 1947. I always thought the red dot indicated AM or PM.

 

[vacosaurus]

I have one of these. It is original cream color and keeps perfect time.

 

[tennblondie78]

Here's another green one

It's slightly different, but green as well. I love that color on it; I think it looks fresh and springy.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vtg-General...474?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item338e6344ea

 

[gefilterflo]

I have a 1949 Revere R-913 electric mantle clock with a similar movement. The rotor was sealed from the factory and had oil in it. It dries up with time. Mine would slowly lose time and sounded like it had marbles in it. I took the movement out and oiled it with fulcrum oil and ended up oiling the rotor by putting a cup of ATF in the freezer then putting the rotor in the oven to get it hot. When I put the hot rotor in the cold fluid, it sucks a bit of oil in through the case around the pinion into the rotor without drilling into it. I repeated it a few times and it has been quiet for almost two years. I don't know if yours will respond to it or not but if you're feeling adventurous, perhaps it may.

 

[classiccaprice]

I have one too that someone painted purple, though it was originally white... Very similar, though my indicator only turns white when you are setting the time.

 

[58limited]

I have that same clock, same model number - 2H08, but it doesn't have the red dot mentioned in the posts above. I repainted it since the old paint  was rough but it only ran for a little while before it quit. Its been in a kitchen drawer ever since.

 

[danemodsandy]

Target.....

....Made an adaptation of this clock a couple-three years ago, in red. I have one.

It's plastic, not steel, and has the usual battery movement found in today's kitchen clocks. It's one of the few repros in an otherwise all-vintage kitchen, but a corded clock would have been a real problem to put up due to outlet scarcity.

And it was cheap at $7 - one of the very few things I've ever bought from Target.

Looks okay. Not perfect, but okay.

 

[beekeyknee]

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Tony, I'll try the freezer-oil method.

 

[58limited]

This thread motivated me to tinker with my clock, it is running now. I took it out of the drawer for the photo I posted and then I took it apart to see what was wrong. The motor was fine, the gears had seized so I oiled them and everything seems OK now.

 

[mattl]

Doesn't anyone know the REAL use of the red dot? It's an indicator of a power failure! When you set the clock it goes white, if the power fails it goes to red.

 

[classiccaprice]

Mine must be disconnected then as it is always red, though it works fine.

 

[whirlcool]

Doesn't anyone know the REAL use of the red dot? It's an indicator of a power failure! When you set the clock it goes white, if the power fails it goes to red.


Beekeyknee in the very first post in this thread explained what it is used for. Did you read it completely?

 

[beekeyknee]

When you set the clock (pull down on the knob) while the electricity is on the dot turns white and stays that way until the power fails. Then the metal disc drops down to the red side until the knob is pulled again to reset the clock. I don't know exactly how it works but I suspect magnetism. I haven't examined it that closely. I know it works by gravity because when it's upside down it doesn't work.

 

[d-jones]

Doesn't anyone know the REAL use of the red dot?

Brian knew the purpose of the red dot. He mentions it in the original comment at the top of the page. But it was a long comment, so some folks may not have read through it all.

 

 

 

OH for cry'in out loud! By the time I hit enter two people have beat me to it, so never mind.

 

[beekeyknee]

It's alright, David. I appreciate the post anyway.

Texas David (lol),

If you take your clock apart to clean it, be careful. The aluminum bezel that surrounds the glass has tabs on it and if they are bent more that once they will break. I wouldn't use anything harsh to clean the dial. It's hard telling what might happen.

B.

 

[mattl]

Sorry, just scanned the thread.  Saw many comments about the red dot always there and commented...

 

[rp2813]

I have a few different Telechron clocks and have revived dead rotors and quieted down noisy ones with 3-in-1 Motor Oil that has the blue stripe.

 

This method usually works, and all you need besides the oil is an incandescent light bulb.

 

Remove the rotor from the coil assembly.  Using your average table lamp or a desk lamp turned upside down, place the rotor on the top of the bulb, pinion side up.  It will take a bit of nuding it around to get it balanced and as level as possible.

 

Turn on the lamp for an hour or so, the shut it off and carefully place one drop of oil at a time over the pinion gear.  It will be taken up in the tiny well surrounding the gear, and sucked inside the rotor.  Repeat this process about 15 times as long as oil continues to be sucked in.

 

Most rotors will quiet down after this procedure.  Some can be stubborn and stop sucking in the oil, which requires turning the lamp on again and reheating the rotor for 20 or 30 minutes.  At first, it's best not to exceed 15 drops.  Too much oil will bog down the mechanism and make the clock run slow.

 

If the above process doesn't work, then you have to carefully take a small drill to the housing, in order to clean out the rotor and re-fill it with oil.  There's a special spot where the hole has to be made so no interior rotor parts get damaged.  Contact me directly if you have to pursue this method.

 

Replacement rotors are no longer made.  They can easily go for $25 or more on eBay. 

 

I've bought a number of clocks on eBay that were non-working and a little time on the light bulb got them running smoothly and quietly.

 

The coil that holds the rotor is easy to remove, and the rotor can be removed from the coil assembly if you pull apart the two "forks" that hold it in place.

 

I have a Garcon as well.  I just yesterday replaced it with a more contemporary "Diameter" model.

 

My Garcon was originally orange-red but it was scratched up.  Red didn't work in our kitchen either, so I got some high quality black spray paint and applied multiple light coats. 

 

Here's how it looked up until yesterday: