Help needed with sweep seconds

[saswatch88]

 

I have an Elgin 532 produced from 39-44. It’s a non hacking military movement which was the predecessor of the 539. I serviced the movement, and reassembled. Watch ticks great but second hand is very jittery it doesn’t sweep as it should. Center wheel and pinion looked fine. I also made sure sweep bridge screw was tightened. The second hand is secured to the pinion, it’s not loose at all. When it ticks I can see the center wheel turning smoothly so I can’t understand why the hand would act like it’s loose. And last but not least the hand is not hitting anything it’s acts the same way out of the case and is spaced well enough away from the minute hand any ideas?

[Nucejoe]

Check if hand connection to its own tube is loose.

[Marc]

I've not worked on one of these but a quick Google and the found pics show it as an indirect centre seconds movement. These almost always have a tension spring of some kind that acts on the seconds pinion to prevent the jittery motion of the seconds hand.

In the above you can see circled in red a screw that passes through the centre seconds cock and appears to bear on a flat spring. My guess is that that is the tension spring and the tension is adjusted with the screw.

try turning the screw to increase the tension on the centre seconds pinion until the jittering just stops. You may need to lubricate the contact between the spring and the pinion if you haven't already done so. The tension needs to be just enough to smooth out the motion of the hand whilst keeping loss of amplitude to a minimum (there will be some loss, it's unavoidable).

[saswatch88]

1 hour ago, Marc said:

I've not worked on one of these but a quick Google and the found pics show it as an indirect centre seconds movement. These almost always have a tension spring of some kind that acts on the seconds pinion to prevent the jittery motion of the seconds hand.

In the above you can see circled in red a screw that passes through the centre seconds cock and appears to bear on a flat spring. My guess is that that is the tension spring and the tension is adjusted with the screw.

try turning the screw to increase the tension on the centre seconds pinion until the jittering just stops. You may need to lubricate the contact between the spring and the pinion if you haven't already done so. The tension needs to be just enough to smooth out the motion of the hand whilst keeping loss of amplitude to a minimum (there will be some loss, it's unavoidable).

did not think of that. great will try this out and update the post

[Nucejoe]

1 hour ago, Marc said:

I've not worked on one of these but a quick Google and the found pics show it as an indirect centre seconds movement. These almost always have a tension spring of some kind that acts on the seconds pinion to prevent the jittery motion of the seconds hand.

In the above you can see circled in red a screw that passes through the centre seconds cock and appears to bear on a flat spring. My guess is that that is the tension spring and the tension is adjusted with the screw.

try turning the screw to increase the tension on the centre seconds pinion until the jittering just stops. You may need to lubricate the contact between the spring and the pinion if you haven't already done so. The tension needs to be just enough to smooth out the motion of the hand whilst keeping loss of amplitude to a minimum (there will be some loss, it's unavoidable).

I couldn,t find on ranfft, the caliber sasswatch talked about , didn,t know see the looks of it.

I have around fifty movements of this design made by fhf , in fact most any producer made this design. Have worked on many.

  @Marc  you are right about the spring and center second,  in case of improper oiling, even if it runs good now, it may anytime impede the movement. 

Everytime I removed the min wheel, the wheel fell off couple of months later. Proper tooling and skill is a must. 

 

[Tmuir]

5 hours ago, saswatch88 said:

 

I have an Elgin 532 produced from 39-44. It’s a non hacking military movement which was the predecessor of the 539.

It looks like you already have gotten the help you need, but I am interested to hear about this movement as I was not aware of it as its not mentioned in any of my reference books of Elgin wristwatches used by the military.

I have in the post coming a small collection of NOS parts for Elgin 580 and 554 military watches, and will now need to keep an eye out for a 532 too.

I'm only really just starting to learn about American military watches, but already have a small collection of American military aircraft clocks and one naval deck clock

[saswatch88]

5 hours ago, Tmuir said:

It looks like you already have gotten the help you need, but I am interested to hear about this movement as I was not aware of it as its not mentioned in any of my reference books of Elgin wristwatches used by the military.

I have in the post coming a small collection of NOS parts for Elgin 580 and 554 military watches, and will now need to keep an eye out for a 532 too.

I'm only really just starting to learn about American military watches, but already have a small collection of American military aircraft clocks and one naval deck clock

the 532 was limited production for the military, only a few thousand pieces made, and they were only made for the marines with the white dial. If you google search USMC elgin 532 you will see it. I have seen black dial versions but I believe they were for civilian use. The watch was quickly replaced with the 539 since the 532 was a non hacking movement. The 539/ and other A-11 movements started the whole military hacking movement wave. It has since been the standard for any military watch.

[Tmuir]

Thanks for the info saswatch88

[Chopin]

I had the same problem on a Longines and it's what Marc described. It's that little spring that presses on the pinion or whatever it's called that the seconds hand is attached to on the other end.

On mine I had simply misadjusted it.

Edited May 25, 2019 by Chopin

[saswatch88]

On 5/25/2019 at 5:50 AM, Chopin said:

I had the same problem on a Longines and it's what Marc described. It's that little spring that presses on the pinion or whatever it's called that the seconds hand is attached to on the other end.

On mine I had simply misadjusted it.

YEA I adjusted mine and now its good