Oiling the clock mechanism ( 25 ) Flush fresh oil around the pivot point, as you clean the old oil away. You do this until there is no dirty oil around the pivot point or oil sink well. Usually two or three times will do it. ( 26 ) Next you use a clean soft cloth to wipe away all oil from around the pivot. ( 27 ) In the above example there is still excessive oil on the plate. You want the plate clean, and dry of any oil before you oil the pivot. if oil starts to run out of the oil sink, you used too much oil. Wipe it dry and start over. You want enough oil to really wet the pivot and bearing but not enough to fill the well. ( 28 ) Just look at all those gears. Actually it is three different power trains. One for the time, one for the strike, and one for the chime. And they all work to gether. Three different simple power trains forming one complex clock mechanism. ( 29 ) Above you see typical gears and pinions. Notice how the teeth of one gear drive the pinion of the next one. This mechanism has 36 oil points. We have marked only a few from the chime train. Trace the gears to the pivot points, but apply the oil to the the oil sink on the outside of the plate, and not to the inside. The oil will travel on the pivot. ( 30 ) With all of the pivots cleaned and oiled, You are ready to reverse the process and put your clock mechanism back in its case. Take your time and just reverse the process. When you reconnect the mechanism to the clock dial, make sure that the gear that drives the moon dial does not bind with the gear on the hour shaft that drives it. As a rule, a very gentle turning the gears that are connected to the dial will cause them to allign. Home