Patiently succeeded in reassembly.

The watch had stopped running for mysterious reason. So, disassembled, cleaned and checked all gears and jewels.
I found the 4th wheel seconds pinion was a little bent. Attemped a straightening without breaking it. I assumed this was the problem.

After reassembly and oiling, the watch will run dial down fairly well. It will go in dial up position but it makes a clunking sound more than a normal ticking.
If I pick it up and rotate to othere positions the watch simply stops until I put it back to dial down.

The staff appears to be good, it fully winds, the jewels are all good and clean and the gear train goes nice when pressure is applied.

This is baffling me and am wondering if it's an 18 size technical issue concerning reassembly, oiling, banking pins.

I would greatly appreciate any insight into this to get it running normally again.

Will RK parts interchange with other Columbus 18s models like the North model,etc

Thank you

That really sounds like a bad staff or a blown out jewel. I've had blown hole jewels in the lower hole that are hard to see until I had them out of the hole and in my hand under the mag-lamp.

I'd back out far enough to see if I have a good flutter test... if this test is good, the problem is generally isolated to the balance assembly.

Paul,

Thanks for your reply.

Not sure what a flutter test is. As for blown jewels.... do you mean the one or both of the balance jewels are worn out?

Are they easy to find and replace?

The flutter test is a full plate 18S version of a free spin test.

Remove the balance cock and the main spring barrel.

Apply light pressure to the center wheel... you should see the pallet fork wiggle with almost no effort applied back and forth at the center wheel.

In one direction, it will lock... in the other direction, it should cause the pallet fork to "flutter" for a half a second or so as the gear train rotates under light pressure.

Before doing this though, you can do another check that will tell you if you need to back out that far. Just remove the balance assembly and use your peg wood to coax the pallet back and forth "30 times"... you should have a good snap, left, right, left, right... through all 30 strokes... this will generally assure that your problem is not in the wheel train.

The lower hole jewel on the 18S is down inside and hard to get a good visual on. I have a lighted magnifier lamp that helps me a lot.

Otherwise, I take a picture with my cell phone and blow it up on my computer to get a closer look.

Jewels secured with screws are not that hard to replace... but can be a bear to find the correct replacement.

Pressed jewels are "game over" for me... tooling and learning how to manage pressed jewels is the next step in my progressive growth curve.

Thanks Paul,

I guess i never knew what it was called. However, I've performed the flutter test countless times as well as the "snap/stroke "thing in order to check my reassemblies.

This movement passes those tests but, I can't figure what's making it stop/clunk in verticle positions. Goes like a champ in dial up.

Do you think it's an oil issue?

Can you shoot me a picture of the balance wheel from the side in dial down position and/or the position it is making noise in, one of the lower pivot and one of the lower jewel?

Is the balance wheel straight and true? Sometimes, the clearance for the wheel to the plate is so tight that even a slight distortion of the balance wheel can consume your clearance to the plate.

Send them to my email account in full resolution so I can blow them up in my photo manager...

paulkat2993@sbcglobal.net

Check balance end shake and side shake, any wobble.
The roller jewel shellac may be loose, jewel not upright or not fully engaging fork due to change in length.

Mike,

It's about this point that I bite the bullet. Open the watch back up as if I've never been in it before and start from scratch with all my tear down checks... one screw at a time, one jewel at a time, one gear at a time... until I find the smoking gun.