Removing A Movement On A Colonial Grandfather Clock

The following posting will help our customers replace a movement in one of many Colonial Grandfather clocks. Colonial Clock Company made several different models and types of Grandfather clocks.  Different models used different movements. The movements attached to the clocks case in a few different ways.  The following is an instructional blog to help you replace your movement on a colonial Grandfather clock that its movement attaches directly to the Grandfather clocks face. The Grandfather clocks face is mounted to the front upper case using a special mounting bracket that is noted in the pictures. The movement is attached to the clocks face using 4 face post, located on the Grandfather clocks face. The face post are locked into place using a locking tab. The 4 locking tabs are all that holds this style movement and once the 4 locking tabs are moved to unlock the face post, the movement will drop down through the bottom of the Grandfather clocks case. 

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The picture to the right is the Colonial Grandfather Clock that we are using in this instructional blog. Colonial Clock Company made several models and styles that used this mounting system. If your Grandfather clocks case looks a little different, don't be concerned, the mounting  system is the same. 

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​The second picture to the right will show the inspection panel removed. The first step is to remove the side panel from the side of the Grandfather Clocks case. On each side of the Grandfather clocks case you will find a removable side panel that looks like the one pictured to the right. 


You will need to remove this side inspection panel in order to see what mounting system that Colonial used on your clock.  In order to remove the side inspection panel, you will slide the inspection panel strait up. The panel will move up about 1/4". Once the panel is moved up you will be able to push the bottom in slightly. Once the bottom is in you can move the panel down and at then by moving it around, you should be able to remove the panel through the front toward you. 

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Once the inspection panel is out, you will be able to see inside the Grandfather clock case to inspect the clocks movement. Go ahead and repeat the same steps for the other side. You will need both inspection panels removed. 

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Now that the inspection panel is removed, you should see the mounting system that is on your Colonial Grandfather clock. In the picture to the left you will see the back side of the Grandfather clocks face, along with the clocks movement. As mentioned earlier ,  the face is attached to the clocks case with the brass straps that are screwed down to the clocks case. The movement is attached and held on to the face using 4 face posts. As pictured below left. (This picture of the face post, does not belong to the clock in this project, this pictures is of another clock face, however all of the clock face post are alike on this style clock, I wanted you to see a close up of what they look like. You will not be removing the clock face in this Grandfather clock tutorial, the face on the Colonial Grandfather clock is mounted permanently in this style Grandfather clock case. 

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In the picture above, you will see the locking tabs on the Grandfather clocks movement. There are a total of 4 locking tabs. 2 on each side, 1 on the top side of the movement and 1 on the bottom side of the movement. The top 2 will slide down toward you and the 2 on the bottom will slide up away from you.

Prior to removing the movement from the Grandfather clock case, you will have to remove the hands from the clock movement. This is done by removing the nut that holds the hands on to the movement. Once the nut is removed, you will be able to gently pull the minute hand off. Once the minute hand has been removed, you will be able to remove the hour hand by gently wiggling the hour hand back and forth, pulling on it gently.
Now that the hands are off, you will need to remove the movement from the grandfather clock case.

PLEASE READ THROUGH THIS PART BEFORE SLIDING THE LOCKING TABS. ​

​ When you slide the locking tabs, the movement will start to come out. If you are not careful in this process, you might drop the movement and damage the clock.
 The door to the Grandfather clock is always in the way,  no matter what we do on these repairs, so with that said, you will slide the locking tabs on the "HINGED " side of the door first.  Once the 2 locking tabs are loose on the hinged side of the door, you will un-lock the other 2 locking tabs on the other side of the Grandfather clock.  Rest one of your hands under the center of the clock movement by reaching in through the open door. When you unlatch the 2 remaining locking tabs, the clock movement will want do drop down quickly. You could damage the clock as well as the chime rods, so make sure your free hand is able to hold the movement as you un lock the locking tabs. Once you have un latched the last locking tab, the movement will be free from the face. Carefully move the movement back towards the backside of the case and lower the movement in your hand. Carefully watch to make sure you do not get any part of the movement hung up in the chime rods. Once the movement has cleared the chime rods you can safely remove the movement out through the front door of the Grandfather clock. 

The movement is now removed and ready for repairs, cleaning or replacing. 
When you are ready to re-install the movement you will simply revers the prior steps when re-installing the movement. There are a few tricks for re-installing the movement. One is when you re-install the movement and you are lining the locking tab holes up with the face posts, the moon gear will not line up properly. If you feel resistance from the center of the face where the moon, you can re-install the minute hand and rotate the hand clockwise. This will allow the moon gear to line up properly with the other gears on the face. Sometimes you will hear a loud "pop" and that will indicate the moon gear is lined up correctly. The moon gear is not really visible when you are re-installing the movement, so you might have to go by feel on this one. The only other problem is the chime selector switch might not line up with the slot on the right hand side of the face (near the #3). The picture below will show you how this switch gets out of alignment when re-installing the moment. 

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The above picture shows how the selector switch did not line up with the slot. 

The above picture indicates the selector switch in its proper position

The above picture shows the selector switch from the back side of the face, not lining up properly with the slot in the face. You can gently slide the selector switch into the grove, don't force this selector switch, it is flexible and will move into its slot. 

The above picture shows the selector switch in its proper slot.