Author Topic: VDO clock repair  (Read 4584 times)

col320ce

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VDO clock repair
« on: July 28, 2016, 12:59:31 »
I'm having trouble getting the cover off the  back of the clock. There is one connector staying with the cover that is attached to a brown wire. Is this supposed to come off with the back?
Thanks for any help...
Col

1964 230SL
1965 250SE coupe
1993 320CE Sportline

Tyler S

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Re: VDO clock repair
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2016, 15:46:55 »
Yes the 1 pin stays with the cover. There is however a wire attached on the underside that travels to the lamp bulb socket. (Can be seen in pic) You need the correct toung angle to kind of pull the cover twards that wire once it clears the 2 other posts.
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mbpaul

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Re: VDO clock repair
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2016, 16:08:16 »
There is a pretty good sl113 wiki about the clock but also look at this. The early 107 analog clock is pretty much the same clock.  You can see the wire you are talking about still attached to the cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaoUMLz8vBc

Also, here is an article on the mod most clocks need to get them running again.  This is on the MBCA website at:

http://mbca.org/sites/default/files/7008874_Clockrepair2.jpg

But it no longer includes the pictures.  The following is a copy of article with the pictures as well although pictures are black and white and a little hard to see but I think this is the best you can get.  The procedure was written by James Mahaffey, a well known nuclear engineering expert from Georgia Tech, whose hobbies include these clocks and old Becker radios.

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/r-c107-sl-slc-class/1545131-1972-vdo-kienzle-clock.html

If you are doing the mod described in this article and the youtube video, the person in the video keeps talking about a zener diode but it really just a plain old diode.  Amazon has them for practically nothing but the shipping may cost more than the diode.  If you are in the USA and there is still a Radio Shack around, they usually have a diode close enough to do.

My clock had not worked in about 30 years and this mod was all it took to get it going again.