I have a 987 that was working finen , till i changed the dial.

Heres my problem, when the second goes on , the balance wheel stops, when it comes off, it resumes and keeps accurate time - any thoughts

did i bend or damage the 4th wheel pivot?

I am very new at repairs and other than replacing dials and hands , my only sucess of note, is replacing a mainspring barrel to fix another movement. Not bad, nut i am not ready to hang out the shingle

thanks for the help

Gary, If the pivot was buggered up the watch would likely have a problem running without the seconds in place. A slight bend to the pivot might cause the seconds to contact the dial but that is pretty easy to see. If the seconds hand is a replacement then there is a chance the pipe is long and contacts the jewel when pressed down. Also check that the hand is flat and horizontal to the pipe. Once you find the cause these problems aren't too hard to correct.
-Cort

Gary,
My guess is that the new dial is not aligned precisely and the second hand tube is binding on the side of the dial. Check and see if the second hand post and center wheel plnion are centered in the dial holes. If the sec. hand post is off center that`s likely the problem. The remedy would be to correctly and very carefully bend the dial feet so that the dial aligns properly. Needless to say, I suppose, but if this not done carefully and accurately you could make it worse or even damage the dial! I have used a broach on a dial hole edge to remove a "micro" amount when the tube just barely touched.
Again, CAREFUL! Any undue stress or heavy-handedness on the dial feet could ruin the dial!

Hi All,
As most of you know, dial feet are easily broken when trying to bend them even slightly. I have had good luck by placing the dial foot in a proper size hole in a flat staking punch, then levering the punch in the proper direction to adjust the foot.
Best Regards,
Steve Settle

Actually the feet shouldn`t need "bending" but rather straightening back to a perpendicular position. A proper size pin-vise placed over the foot and held at a 90 degree angle, then tighened, sometimes works quite well.

Gary,
All good advise so far the first thing I would look at is to see if the hand is touching the dial. By the time you get this far down in the train the amount of power is small and if the hand touches the dial it would stop the watch.

The feet in at least some of the 987 series dials I have see are only held in a tiny metal collar on back of dial - not soldered or brased on - so any attempt to bend same may well pull the foot right out of its housing.

dan

Dan,
Good point! My replies were in reference to pocket watch dials. (I sometimes forget there are any other type! )
Sorry for any confusion.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts

I switched second hands with another one i had been working on and this fixed thed the problem for this watch and there was no ill effects on the other watch

maybe i switched them up when i was was swapping dials .

I have printed this post for my files

Gary

After fixing on watch hands I use a 10X microscope to view the clearances between the hands at all points of 12 hours - some hands, especially those with luminous infill, have very little clearance between hour and minute, or between those and a sub-seconds hand.

Dan.