My series 2 FHC has an electric clock (not a battery clock). I cannot find a wiring diagram for the electric clock. The back of the clock has four fittings. One is for the light bulb and is hooked to the red/white wiring circuit. There are two "large" male spade connectors adjacent to each other in the middle of the unit and one "small" male spade connector on the right side of the unit. At the present time, there is a purple wire hooked to one of the "large" spade connectors in the middle of the unit and it is looped around and connected to the "small" spade connector on the right side of the unit. There is a loose black wire (ground?) with a "small" female spade connector that appears to belong to the clock but is not connected and will not connect to the open "large" male spade connector.

Can anyone help me figure out how the clock is supposed to be wired. It is a Smiths unit.

Submitted by MikeEck@optonl… on Sat, 12/14/2013 - 12:03

The original and currently unavailable mercury battery had a constant voltage characteristic and so maintained its voltage at a constant 1.3 Volts for its entire life. The currently available alkaline cells start at about 1.6 Volts and constantly droop during their lifetime. The clock mechanism is sensitive to voltage so it runs faster with the higher voltage, as you have observed. One advantage of the clock having its own power source is that you don't need to reset it after disconnecting the car's battery, which many people do for safety with a cutoff switch. Later versions of the clock ran it from the car's battery.

Submitted by DavidBarnes71@… on Sat, 12/14/2013 - 08:57

This is a bit off topic but when I got my 68 FHC and saw the clock with an oversize watch battery I thought it was one of the strangest pieces of original equipment I had ever seen on a car. Why would they power it with a battery with all those wires right next to it ?? Of course the battery was dead so the clock did not work. A few years ago either on this site or in the magazine I saw a tech tip about putting in a cheap AA battery holder secured to the back of the flip down panel with velcro tape to replace the hard to find original type battery. I connected the wires from the holder to the contacts on the back of the clock. To my amazement the clock started working immediately. It has been keeping pretty good time for the last couple of years on the same AA battery (runs a little fast). I am now quite impressed with this clock since it is the only one I have ever had work in a 60's or 70's car. Makes me wonder if this is really the better way to go than being wired into the car since it is constant and stable very low power ? My apologies to Mr Smiths for originally thinking he had a goofy idea

David Barnes
68 E-Type FHC

Submitted by MikeEck@optonl… on Fri, 12/13/2013 - 15:54

I'm not surprised that the clock doesn't work, since I've had to fix over 350 Smiths clocks this year alone. There seems to be a never-ending supply of broken clocks in these cars.

Submitted by NC98-50822 on Fri, 12/13/2013 - 15:29

Thanks, Michael. Your wiring suggestion made sense and I tried it. Clock still doesn't work. Don't know when it last ran, so I suspect some of the clock internals need attention.

Dennis

Submitted by MikeEck@optonl… on Thu, 12/12/2013 - 16:47

Hi Dennis,

I think I can help with this one. The two 1/4" spade connectors are actually one U-shaped piece of metal welded to the back of the clock and are therefore Ground. The smaller spade terminal with the white insulator around it is the power connection. The purple wire connects from the power terminal to Fuse 8, where you will find other purple wires and hopefully another spade lug to plug the purple clock wire onto. The black wire is ground and should connect to one of the 1/4" spades on the back of the clock. Hope this helps.