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Timex M29 reassembly problems

DanvilleDave

By DanvilleDave
in Watch Repairs Help & Advice

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DanvilleDave New Member

DanvilleDave

Posted
Posted

Hello Everone:

I am new to this forum.  I am a fan of vintage timex watches and recently bought a beautiful late 50’s watch exactly similar to the one in the attached picture.  It appears to have an M29 timex movement. I found a diagram of the movement on the net and it is the one I have.  I opened up the case and disassembled the mechanism to clean it and attempted to put it back.  But I am having a hard time doing it.   Is there a step by step diagram or way to do this, specially as you try to put the two main surfaces on top of each other.  Also, I was wondering if there are experts who can do this better than a novice like me.  Thanks for your help.

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7DDFCCC1-328A-49FD-8322-8B929CB9012E.jpeg

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HectorLooi Distinguished Member

HectorLooi

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The resident Timex expert here in WRT is JerseyMo. His advice has always been not to disassemble the plates, just loosen the balance screw then dunk the whole movement in lighter fluid and swish it around for 15 minutes. Blow dry and oil.

I have disassembled several Timexses against common sense and never found any trick to get it back together easily. Sometimes it just falls into place with no effort at all, other times it take 45 minutes.

If your balance wheel is still attached to the upper plate, you need to unpin and remove it first. Put all the wheels into the pivot holes of the bottom plate first, including the escape wheel and pallet fork. Then align the upper plate as best as you can and drop it in and pray. If you didn't get a hole-in-one, the start from the mainspring arbor and work your way down the gear train to the pallet fork. It takes practice. Once you get all the pivots in, screw down the plates. Reassembling the balance comes next....

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JerseyMo Distinguished Member

JerseyMo

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True that I advise not to disassemble the entire movement and to follow the basic guide from the Timex Service Manuals.  There are no step by step instructions and even if there were you still have learn the various techniques of reassembling.

no better way to learn than by trying.

 

 

 

 

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HectorLooi Distinguished Member

HectorLooi

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I just put my M109 back together a couple of nights ago. It took me more than an hour. Getting the balance wheel back into place was a real pain. And this isn't my 1st time doing it. 

Threading the hairspring through the regulator and then into the stud hole was a real pain. The tiny hairspring pin went flying a couple of times. Thank God it landed on my work mat each time.

That prompted me to make a special tweezer for holding the tapered pin, in case I'm dumb enough to fully dismantle another Timex.

One advice I have is go easy on the oil. 

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Nucejoe Distinguished Member

Nucejoe

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9 minutes ago, HectorLooi said:

I just put my M109 back together a couple of nights ago. It took me more than an hour. Getting the balance wheel back into place was a real pain. And this isn't my 1st time doing it. 

Threading the hairspring through the regulator and then into the stud hole was a real pain. The tiny hairspring pin went flying a couple of times. Thank God it landed on my work mat each time.

That prompted me to make a special tweezer for holding the tapered pin, in case I'm dumb enough to fully dismantle another Timex.

One advice I have is go easy on the oil. 

I put a bit of oil on tip of screwdriver and pick the micro pin with the oil( same effect as when you pick up end stone by oiling jewel) , get the pin's bottom side prependicular to the flat side of screwdriver, with HS run through the stud hole, aim with the pin for the stud hole, insert the pin in and press it home. Remove and rinse the cock with balance complete attatched, oil the jewel, mount the cock back on mainplate.

 The pin wont fly if half length sunk in grease, rodico or oil. 

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HectorLooi Distinguished Member

HectorLooi

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Last week I did a M75, 21 jewel, manual wind. More jewels = more pain.

I just don't understand Timex jewels. They are not sprung like Incablocs, Parashocks, Diashocks, etc. It just has a retaining ring that locks the jewel in. And they don't like too much oil in them.

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jdm Distinguished Member

jdm

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8 hours ago, HectorLooi said:

I just don't understand Timex jewels. They are not sprung like Incablocs, Parashocks, Diashocks, etc. It just has a retaining ring that locks the jewel in.

If they had, the price would have been different :biggrin:

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