If Mike Eck’s is no longer in business who is a good resource to convert a Smith clock to modern electronics?
Robert,
Mike is in business. He just converted my clock to AA battery.
Contact him here …
eckmichael@comcast.net
Carlo
And welcome to the forum 
1 Like
Mike does a good job. My Series 2 claock has worked well for many years!
Dennis 69 OTS
1 Like
How is the time set on these conversions?
Mike’s conversion looks just like the original and is set the same way - pull and turn the adjustment knob.
If you generally cut battery power when the car is parked overnight, then the best option may be the AA battery version so you don’t have to reset often.
2 Likes
I opted to buy a digital conversion kit from www.clocks4classics.com. About $95 shipped from England. I will do the swap of innards myself with their excellent YouTube tutorial. Their clocks have been running since 2012, run off the car battery and still make the analog ticking sound we love.
1 Like
Welcome to the forum Robert! I hope you don’t mind me making a small suggestion. You might want to seriously consider removing your email address and telephone number from your postings. As a public forum Jag-Lovers is subject to data mining like any other such site, and providing such information will likely expose you to a lot of unwanted communication, and possibly worse. Fortunately, the Jag-Lovers forum software provides a Private Messaging system that allows any member to communicate privately with any other without revealing their email address or other contact information, so there really is no need to provide contact information in the public forum. Welcome!
5 Likes
David,
Thank-you for your suggestion. It makes perfect sense!
Robert Alpert
I just finished converting the clock in my S1 E-Type to the Clocks4Classics digital movement. It wasn’t easy, but definitely very rewarding. Note that part of the movement is digital, but the clock is still 99% Smiths, with the balance wheel properly oscillating, and thus “ticking.”
Some interesting points:
No need to remove the tachometer. The clock is held to the tach by 1/4" nuts, and can be accessed from under the dash with a 1/4" socket wrench and short extension. (A hand mirror helps!) Just unscrew the bezel securing the hands adjustment mechanism on the underneath cardboard dash panel (above your right knee), then remove the dash panel after undoing the securing screw and grommet.
You gotta love Smiths. On the back of the mechanism, inside the case, is the stamped message “Four-4-Jewels Unadjusted,” buried where no human eyes would see it until the clock is dismantled.
I spotted two of those jewels; they look to be rubies.
The clock runs from the car battery and ticks just like it did back in 1971 when I bought the car!
In scouring the web, I found two very interesting Jaguar service bulletins explaining why the clocks infamously crashed and burned (see photos).
One of the last photos below shows the clock on the bench connected to the car battery so that the speed can be adjusted. This is tedious, and has taken me three days to dial it in. Half the clock is still analog, so it will be a bit fast or slow, just like they always were.
This conversion most definitely IS reversible. However, the few eliminated parts are the problematic ones, so the question begs to be asked: why would you spend the time cleaning this incredible mechanism and reassembling it with parts that will most certainly fail…soon?
“Unadjusted” in the context of a balance wheel mechanism means not adjusted for position. Positional adjustment refers to poising and shimming the balance wheel so that it keeps time regardless of the position of the mechanism. This is important for a wristwatch, because your arm moves with several degrees of freedom. But the Jaguar clock is permanently mounted upright, so not too important.
1 Like
I had mine redone by nisonger. It was expensive but works.
I believe that it was replaced with an updated mechanism