In article 3tudnSzq87
,
says...

For the very old grandfather clock about 7 feet tall, I tried that. I can't
feel any change in resistance as I move pendulum aside as far as the side of
the case, which is obviously the limit of its travel. I wonder if the
mechanism is so old that it doesn't have automatic adjustment.

Maker dates from early 1800s (Barwise Mitchell, Cockermouth) and may not
have had any enhancements since then.


Any clock I've had any contact with has had a slipping clutch
arrangement to couple the pendulum to the escapement - just a
screw with a fibre pad on the end. Possibly the screw has been
overtightened or the pad has 'glued' itself to the escapement?

This is easy to get at with a mantle clock because the back
door opens, giving access to the movement. You would hve to
remove the movement in this case to check and rectify the
problem.


For the much newer granddaughter clock (about 4 feet tall) .

The clock seems to be fairly sensitive about its fore/aft angle. Against the
wall it stops but pulled out a few inches it has been running for about ten
minutes and the tick sounds more even. I wonder if that's what the problem
was. I'll find a spirit level and see how vertical it is fore/aft and
side/side.

Assuming the wall is true, you can replicate the same effect
by loosening the movement fixings and putting suitable packing
detween the bottom of the movement and the case. Over a
distance of nearly 4 feet, the thickness of the packing will
be only a minute fraction of 'a few inches' to create the same
angle and shouldn't be noticeable under normal operating
conditions.

--

Terry

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