7J Sterling - New mainspring - but watch won't wind - looks to me like parts are worn some but other than that I can't see what's wrong. The watch wants to set the hands in either wind or set position. There's a little spring (bottom right of center in the picture) that extends through the opening on the set lever and it wants to protrude through the hole when set to the wind position. Is this proper? Or, is the spring too short?

Dave the spring should set under the wheel may be part of it missing..

Thanks Samie, You're a lifesaver. It's so good to have a resource like this when you're trying to learn by yourself. I've got the wheel on top of that spring now and can't wait to see what happens. I'll let you know.

Status Report: I've got the spring under the wheel now and the mechanism appears to work properly. However, in the wind position the setting is still active.
Is the purpose of that spring to life the wheel to disengage the setting? If so, it isn't doing it's job. And, would that be the reason I'm not able to wind the watch either? I can wind it about 1 1/2 turns and then it's tight. And it seems to me that the watch is always in the setting position unless you push the stem in to wind it. Is that normal?

Here's the parts showing the spring in question. I'm wondering if the spring isn't doing it's job?.... (to raise the wheel to disengage the setting feature)

Dave when you put the winding wheels set bridge etc. back together the pin # 1 goes in the middle of the fork #2 the spring #3 goes under the small gear and push it up when in the set postion.; The watch will always be in the set postion till you push in on the winding stem too wind the watch..When the movement is in a case the sleeve in the case will hold it in wind postion till you pull out the crown then it will switch too set postion and the spring will push up the small setting wheel..

I noticed in you pictures the setting wheels look rough clean up the wheels good 2000 grit wet sanding paper will remove a lot of rough places and nicks on the wheels where they rub again the pillar plate..also place a little bit of heavy watch gease on the pillar plate too reduce friction and wear where the gears meet the surface of the pillar plate.

Samie, You're the man!
So glad and appreciate the time you took to draw this out for me.
I think I may see my problem. The spring #3 you refer to under the small gear. I have that gear installed with the flat side up!! Looks like it should be flat side of gear down, (as shown in your picture)?
And, I'll take your advice on cleaning up the rough surfaces and the grease.

Thanks so much.

Well folks, I corrected the position of the gear. However, the watch still winds hard.
I've looked at everything I know to check. The barrel cover is snapped down tight. There is plenty of clearance under the barrel bridge.

In fact, I put this watch aside and cleaned and lubed another 1883 Waltham Sol. Installed the 3rd of the three mainsprings I ordered, and this watch also winds hard. All three of them with the new springs wind hard!

I'm wondering if I got a bad batch of springs?? They are the brown steel springs, and they look like they've been on the shelf for a while. But physically they appear to be okay, no rust.
Any thoughts on this? I don't know what else to do.

All of these watches start right up with the first couple of winds, the balance amplitude looks good, but The Appleton is losing about half an hour in 12 hours. Don't know about the others yet.