Early Z Clock fix with quartz movement

Tony 260Z

Club Member
Hi all,

I've been puzzling for a while about fixing the clocks in my 240 and 260. I know there's a chap in the US who does great work repairing them but it's expensive so I thought I'd have a go at finding a cheaper solution. Pictures show version one of my fix. After quite a bit of faffing with square quartz movements (too big) I found a round one from New Generation Clocks (10mm microshaft Round UTS carriage clock movement - £9.99) and an original-ish looking pair of hands (30mm Black baton microshaft carriage clock hands (MSC T30) - £2.99) which I've shortened and given a few coats of luminous paint (Brian Clegg 100ml luminous paint £6.56 via Amazon Prime).

The downside of version one is that you can't adjust the time of the clock externally, so you have to take the clock out of the car to set it, but the battery should last a year or two so that isn't a disaster. I'm looking for a movement with a slightly longer spindle that I can engage with the time adjuster on the front of the clock housing. When I do that I can remote-fit the battery too.

In the meantime, I have a working clock again!
 

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uk66fastback

Club Member
Very nice solution Tony. No doubt version two is being sewn somewhere in your head or notepad etc ...

How much does the guy in the US charge just out of interest?
 

johnymd

Club Member
I've been looking into this too Tony and bought a cheap quartz movement that wont fit. I think I'll wait a bit longer for you to do all the R&D before buying anything else :)
 

Russell

Club Member
I managed to get my original clock up and running pretty easily. It was just full of 40 years of dust and grime which had stopped the movement.

cleaned it out with sewing machine oil and compressed air, wired it into a bench power supply and eventually got it going.

Worked fine until I took the car apart. Will see if it starts ticking again when I put the car back together!
 

Tony 260Z

Club Member
Very nice solution Tony. No doubt version two is being sewn somewhere in your head or notepad etc ...

How much does the guy in the US charge just out of interest?

Thanks, getting the quartz movement to work with the time adjustment knob is the tricky bit. Wiring in a remote battery should be really easy.

The website is zclocks.com. It looks like it's $269 plus postage and you have to send a good core for him to work on. Correct me if I'm misinterpreting the pricing.

There's a handy page for identifying clocks in case you've got a spare or see one on ebay etc.

Research continues...
 

jonbills

Membership Secretary
Site Administrator
For mine, I bought a vdo clock out of a 944 from ebay and moved the insides into my Z clock case. It was a long time ago but I don’t remember it being very hard.
 

Graham260z

Club Member
Hi all,

I've been puzzling for a while about fixing the clocks in my 240 and 260. I know there's a chap in the US who does great work repairing them but it's expensive so I thought I'd have a go at finding a cheaper solution. Pictures show version one of my fix. After quite a bit of faffing with square quartz movements (too big) I found a round one from New Generation Clocks (10mm microshaft Round UTS carriage clock movement - £9.99) and an original-ish looking pair of hands (30mm Black baton microshaft carriage clock hands (MSC T30) - £2.99) which I've shortened and given a few coats of luminous paint (Brian Clegg 100ml luminous paint £6.56 via Amazon Prime).

The downside of version one is that you can't adjust the time of the clock externally, so you have to take the clock out of the car to set it, but the battery should last a year or two so that isn't a disaster. I'm looking for a movement with a slightly longer spindle that I can engage with the time adjuster on the front of the clock housing. When I do that I can remote-fit the battery too.

In the meantime, I have a working clock again!

The clock in my 260z did'nt work and I took it to a chap in Bournemouth called Martin Perrin of Tech Medics. I went back a couple of days later, a capacitor and a couple of other bits replaced, for less than £40 the clock was working and is keeping good time ever since. I have no connection with Martin other than as a satisfied customer. He can be contacted on 07905 560633 or e.mail support@techmedics.co.uk
 

Stockdale

Club Member
Original clocks were not particularly accurate. Take a look at a booklet handbook of the period and you will see the suggestion to 're-set' the clock each day or use! If it works but isn't accurate then that is fine and as it should be.
 
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