I'm on my second watch cleaning, and I can't figure out how to disassemble the mainspring barrell on the second watch. This watch has a broken or unattached mainspring. How do you take the barrell apart? Luckily the first watch just needed cleaning and is working fine now! Now - mainspring woes!

Thanks!
David

By the way - this is a plain jane 7j 16s Elgin stem set/wind movement.

David, The barrel is three pieces. A barrel, cap and a mainspring arbor. The side opposite the gear shoudl be the cap side. You should be acle to see the seam. Hold the barrel in the palm of your hand cap side down and tap on the arbor to push the arbor and the cap off. I use the plastic handle of a regular screwdriver for this and it seems to work fine.
I hope this helps.

I found this slide in one of John D's tutorials. Check it out, Mainspring Barrel

And here it the whole Tutorial.
You will find these very helpful.

Ok, so that worked! Thanks.

Now, the spring is not broken, but the slot in the end of the mainspring that hooks onto the arbor hook is much longer than the arbor hook itself. Is this because the slot is broken? I can't seem to hook the mainspring back onto the arbor hook.

Thanks in advance!
David

David, It sounds like the arbor end has flattened out and become disconected. This can happen a number of ways. Try reshaping the end of the M/S so it will catch. Be carefun as the springs are easily broken st the thin ends.

Aaron - I reshaped the arbor end of the M/S and it's now hooked on the arbor. Yea! Now - reassembly...

Thanks for the help!!!!

-David