Jaegar clock renewal

My Jaegar clock wasn't working so I removed it from the dash, put 12 volts through it and tapped it a couple of times in the hope it would come alive, unfortunately it didn't. My next step was to take a look inside and see if anything obvious looked out of place or broken.

Original broken Citroen DS clock

To get to the clock mechanism you must firstly remove the time set knob from the clock, on this style of clock it pulls off on other style of D clocks I am told it may unscrew. It was hard to pull the knob off and I found that a cord wrapped around the base of the shaft made the job a lot easier and one tug of the cord and it was off.

The next step is to carefully prise away the bezel, you need to exercise care as the trick is to do it uniformly and try not to deform the metal too much. I found that pushing the edge of the bezel against the edge of a table whilst I prised away with a knife worked for me.

Once the bezel is off the glass can be removed. The next step is to then undo two bolts from the rear of the clock. From memory they are both 7mm, and once you unscrew them the mechanism slides out.

Nothing looked untoward or out of place to my inexperienced naked eye and I proceeded to put 12 volts through the clock to see if anything was coming alive but was getting stuck. Unfortunately nothing, not even when I tried to coax the movement to work by giving it a helping nudge with a pen...

Mike Phelan has created a write up on how to repair the clock, and can be accessed by  clicking here. I decided though to not try to repair it since I was lucky to find a new old stock Jaegar clock for a Humber Sceptre/Hillman Hunter from 1972, which looked very similar to our Citroen clocks.

Humber Scepter clock

I thought as the seller didn't want too much for it, I'd give it a try. The only noticeable difference I can see from the seller's photos was that the rear casing was slightly different due to the way the Humber Sceptre light illumination was set up. My hunch was that I could swap my Citroen outer casings including bezel with the new clock internals.

Humber case/ Citroen case

I am pleased to say that's exactly what I did and I know have a new old stock clock. The only difference now is that mine has white hands instead of yellow, I understand from Mike's write up that you can swap the hands but after applying some pressure and no movement I thought I'd quit while I was ahead and not damage anything!

 

The Humber clock face in the Citroen case

Since Jaegar produced a number of this style of clock for different manufacturers it may be worth considering this modification if you can't find a replacement or repair yours.