Raketa 2609HA Pallet-escapement issue

[Gruccione]

I bought a Raketa 2609ha on the local flea market. Worked a couple days, then stopped. Being the price (and value) of such watch substantially lower than the price of a professional revision, I thought it was the right chance to step into the abyss of watch-repairing, and see if I could do something myself.

 

Disclaimer: I don’t need this watch to be super precise, and I don’t need it to last many years without the need to open it up again. I like the watch for its aesthetics, and I’d like it to run ok-ish, just to wear it as some extravaganza in some social occasions.

 

Considering it was my first ever attempt to disassemble a watch, it went surprisingly well at first… until the Pallet fork came in. Putting it back in place, I noticed one of the jewels lost its shellac, was loose and tilted. After the initial panic and discourage, I managed to carefully put the jewel back in place and fixed it with a small dot of super-glue (I know… but I have no shellac, and this watch is not to be sold. Additionally, superglue comes off with acetone if needed). Unfortunately, as proud of myself as I could be after such delicate operation, the pallet still won’t engage with the escapement as it should.

The fork is somehow blocking the escapement wheel. I don’t have a clear view of the parts when they’re mounted (the pallet bridge is in the way), but it seems that the jewels are "catching" into the wheel's teeth and block it from moving in any direction.

I suspect i've been terribly unlucky to find such issue in my first cleaning attempt, but here I am... any contribution will be much appreciated!  

P.S.:I won’t have access to my workbench for a couple days, but I can try to post some pics as soon as I get back to it, if this can help.

[watchweasol]

Hi  It sounds very much like the pallet/fork jewel you put back is not set right causing a miss lock on the escape wheel,  There are two things you can do , one is ti reset the pallet jewel  or tow and probably the quickest is to find a donor movement on ebay as swap in the pallet/fork.  adjusting the jewel can and probably will take an age without the propper tools.

[JohnR725]

4 hours ago, Gruccione said:

I suspect i've been terribly unlucky to find such issue in my first cleaning attempt

I usually like to recommend beginners start with a running watch. Then if it's not running afterwords it makes it easier to narrow down whose problem that is.

Then cleaning the universal fix In watch repair doesn't always fix everything. Yes it really can fix a lot of things but not everything.

Then nice that you found the problem but you probably caused the problem in the first place. That's the reason I like people start with a running watch preferably a new running watch

Then as you found out replacing the jewel is a problem. Agreeing with the above answer you got popping it in and having it work the first time is very unlikely. This is where a parts watch would be really nice to have.

[Gruccione]

32 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

I usually like to recommend beginners start with a running watch. Then if it's not running afterwords it makes it easier to narrow down whose problem that is.

Then cleaning the universal fix In watch repair doesn't always fix everything. Yes it really can fix a lot of things but not everything.

In my defense I have to say that the watch was running at first, then stopped. I opened the lid and saw that there was oil everywhere... so i thought cleaning was the solution. 

34 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

Then nice that you found the problem but you probably caused the problem in the first place.

Yeah, I can't be sure about it, but this crossed my mind aswell. I know I've been very cautious in all the steps, but the possibility is out there, given my inexperience.

4 hours ago, watchweasol said:

find a donor movement on ebay as swap in the pallet/fork

Thanks to both of you, I think I will follow this advice  

[JohnR725]

2 hours ago, Gruccione said:

In my defense I have to say that the watch was running at first, then stopped. I opened the lid and saw that there was oil everywhere... so i thought cleaning was the solution.

While cleaning doesn't fix everything neither does the handiwork of others applying excessive oil. I had a pocket watch the other week that was like that was literally drenched in oil and for that cleaning is the proper repair.

2 hours ago, Gruccione said:

but the possibility is out there, given my inexperience.

The unfortunate problem with learning watch repair is that everybody breaks stuff. All of us remember the stuff we've broken. If you not breaking watches you're not working on them. But with time The things that you break diminishes considerably hopefully.

[jdm]

The right frame for these words would be a steampunk theme, but I can't find one.

[Gruccione]

Thanks everybody! I'll probably spend some of my Christmas holidays to work on this project. More updates to come

[Gruccione]

So here we are. After finding some cheap movements on the bay i managed to replace the pallet, escapement wheel and balace assembly. After 4 days of wearing the watch daily, it seems to work just fine.

My "watch accuracy meter" app records -15 secs/day and 0.8 beat error. Taking these insights with a grain of salt (it's a free app, not a real device) i'm quite surprised. I'll see if this holds up with time.

Oddly, i had to remove the brass spacer under the balance assembly (as I'm told, spacers like these are typical of soviet era watches but i'm not sure what purpose they serve). With the spacer in, the spring didn't work at all. Weird...

 

Thanks again everyone for the support, the help, and the interest in the project!

[richiesgr]

Very good source for russian mouvement part can be found on etsy.com and they're cheaper than ebay too