Mid Year Clock rebuild

[Jim Wood]

Some time ago in The Restorer, maybe 2-3 years, someone publicized a source of the electrical part of a mid-year clock. Seems to me it was a wholesale house in or around Chicago and the kit was in the $30-$40 range. This wasn't a full feature article but one of the "shorty" two paragraph types.

Can anyone help me out here?

[Richard E.]

Re: Mid Year Clock rebuild

Hi Jim - The only thing I could find in a quick review, was an article in the Winter 1989 Restorer. It was a full article on "repairing a 1963-67 Clock. But in the closing paragraph, it listed "Replacement parts for Borg Clocks as being available from Instrument Services Inc., out of Wisconsin (1-800-558-2674). I believe they advertize in our trade magazines. Not sure if that's what you were refering to or not. Good Luck...Dick

[mike hom]

Re: Mid Year Clock rebuild

I don't know about the article as I have only been a member for about a year and a half. I will say that clock rebuild kits are available from many sources. I bought mine from Zip, I believe. There are at least two types available, mechanical and quartz. The quartz is more accurate and would theoretically last forever, but the mechanical movement is "correct".. You might wonder how anyone would know the difference but the "tick" of the mechanical is easily discernible (even by a 40-something guy with some industrial induced hearing loss like me). The quartz movement will cause a point deduction, if you choose to have the car judged. The way I figure it, if you have a battery cut off switch and use it (a good idea for other reasons), the mechanical movement will probably last almost forever anyway.

As far as actually removing the unit and doing the rebuild - heck, even a rank amateur like me completed the process in about two hours. It really is a snap. Hope this helps.

[Bill D.]

Re: Mid Year Clock rebuild

Dick is correct that ISI in Illinois is the Borg supplier.As of last June when I tried to order some mechanical movements for my stock they no longer had any available.Mike's idea of trying Zip,Mid America,or Long Island should get you one but not as low a cost as ISI would have been.Good luck with your fix.

[Jim Wood]

Re: Mid Year Clock rebuild

Thanks, Dick, for your response Re: my clock inquiry. I didn't really remember the article being as far back as 1989 but time does seem to fly by. Since you're one of the few members with a membership number lower than mine (I'm #1121 and joined NCRS in something like 1975 or '76 or something) I'm sure you can appreciate occasional "senior moments". Since I leave my battery disconnected most of the time the clock will always be hopelessly wrong. My interest in returning it to "runnable" is for the same obsessive reason we ALL restore these things........just 'cause it oughta be right.

[Jim Wood]

Re: Mid Year Clock rebuild

Thanks for your response, Mike. My interest in returning the clock to operable status is simply because I know it ain't right. My car sits with the battery disconnected all of the time unless I'm driving it somewhere. Therefore, it's doomed to always being wrong. But, at least when I take it somewhere on a beautiful sunny day (we get a lot of those in Myrtle Beach) the hands will be moving. Under the circumstances, if I'm gonna go to the trouble and expense to fix it, I'll fix it RIGHT with a mechanical movement.

Thx again.