MUSIC MECHANISMS
Most of the music mechanisms you will find will be in cuckoo clocks. They
will usually be weight drive. watch for worn governor assemblies, worn bushings on
the player drum assembly, and missing or ineffective dampers on the sounding fingers.
the governor assemblies that have plastic worm drive gears often have cracked gears;
and will make a clicking sound as the cracked part of the gear passes the worm gear.
these must be replaced once the gear cracks ;l i know of no way to fix the plastic gears.
An irritating squeaking noise as the music plays is often caused by bad or
missing dampers on the music sounding fingers, to fix this simply glue
new tiny plastic pieces on
the inside bottom if the fingers the squeak can also be caused by loose hardware in the
clock anywhere. Check very carefully for loose screws or wood parts.
The governor assemblies can be rebushed if they aren’t worn too badly, this is preferable , because the original tune can then be saved. There are some
replacement governor assemblies available, but quite after the correct gear ratios are
not included. Also, it is possible to rebush the player drum assembly. Use the appropriate
reamer and very carefully, by hand , open the holes on the fame and press the bushing
in with a pair or flat parallel jawed pliers. Make sure the bushing fits the shaft before
it is pressed in.
DO NOT EVER PUT ONE OF THESE IN AN ULTRASONIC CLEANING
MACHINE , THE DAMPERS WILL E BOILED OFF AND IT WILL BE RUINED.
There are music mechanisms that have only the tune part separate , and the gear
train is in the main mechanism. The usually have large vertically mounted governors,
with adjustable fan blades . Watch out for these ; if the worm gear has worn teeth , it
will never work correctly . On music cuckoos , if the return spring on the side mount
music mechanism it too tight; the entire time/strike mechanism will bind up and stop.