Cuckoo Strike Quantity Issues

Cuckoo Strike Quantity Issues

Issues with the strike quantity on a cuckoo clock is a common ailment upon setting up a new movement. The clock will strike 12 o’clock and then 12 again at 1 o’clock or something like this. This has to do with the mechanical components behind the clock dial.

Remove the hands and dial to get to that section of the cuckoo movement.

Remove the hands

To remove the cuckoo hands you need a pair of needle nose pliers. Hold the minute hand still (longer of the two hands) while loosening the minute hand nut.

Once the nut is loose, just turn to the left until it is off. Then the minute hand will come off with its round bushing that has a square hole in it. Remove the bushing out of the minute hand when it’s off of the clock.

It is only a friction fit, just push it out or pry it out of the hand with a flat screwdriver. Hour hand is only a friction fit so twist it and pull.

Remove the dial

Removing the dial is done after the hands are off. There is anywhere between 2 and 4 small nails holding the cuckoo dial on the clock. Sometimes, on rare occasions, the dial is glued to the clock case. Either way, it is the same method to remove the dial.

Take a small flat head screwdriver and lift gently on the dial on one side and then the other until little by little it will come up and off the case.

Component description

Once the dial is off of the clock please notice the saw tooth rack. The rack looks like a saw with sharp teeth and it flops up and down in the front of the movement. It falls down on a snail looking thing that is on the same tube as the hour hand.

In other words the smaller of the two hands that points out the hour is also on this same tube as the snail. A rack and snail count system these components determine how many times it will cuckoo each hour.

How it works

There are at least 12 saw looking teeth on the rack, one tooth per hour totaling at least 12. The rack will fall onto the portions of the snail then moves back up one tooth at a time. Each tooth that climbs back up lets the strike train run for that time duration.

That time duration of the strike wheels spinning will allow the clock to cuckoo one time. The lowest portion of the snails humps would be 12 strikes for 12 o'clock. This is because the lowest hump on the snail will expose 12 teeth on the rack.

Correcting Cuckoo Strike Quantity Issues

If there is any Cuckoo Strike Quantity Issues, the issue is in this area. The best thing to do is to make it strike over and over as looking at these components in action.

There is usually no parts to buy to fix this and it’s usually just a matter of tweaking something here or there to let the rack fall as it should and when it should.

Something to note is that if it strikes ONE and TWELVE ok, then the snail is on correctly and the rest of the hours will automatically be ok. So the goal is to be sure the clock strikes the 12 times ok and then the one o’clock also. This will solve the Cuckoo Strike Quantity Issues.