Rechaining a grandfather clock

by Alex Sandorf
(Dunnellon, Florida, USA)

It was perplexing when my chain came off the sprocket. After a few days of thought and looking (the old eyeball examination) I realized that the paths for both sides of the chain are perfectly clear.

The problem would be getting over the hump of the sprocket. This is how I did it.

I disconnected the weight. I tied heavy duty thread to the other end of the chain. I used a candle to stiffen the thread. I carefully ran the thread up through the "weight side" hole. I pulled the end of it up about 1 foot above the sprocket. I secured the chain(so I was not dealing with the weight of the chain).

With a pair of reading glasses on, I carefully threaded the thread over the sprocket, making certain that I was not crossing any shafts, springs.

I threaded the string down through the "pull" hole. I gently pulled the thread from below while watching the path of the thread and chain from above until I was certain that the path was correct.

After I was certain that there were no hang-ups or mistakes, I pulled the chain all of the way through, reattached the weight and started the clock.