Need help with reassembling the power train

[spacetimefabric]

I'm a newbie with watch repairing, as will be made obvious, and would love some help figuring out how to reassemble the train for this watch. I recently bought a different watch off the bay, and the seller threw in another vintage watch, a Bercona with what looks like a stuck stem. I took care of the stem problem (the winding pinion was misaligned), but forgot to take a photo of the power train that I had to take out to get to it (I underestimated the difficulty (for me) thinking, oh, it's just a one-jewel watch, I'll figure it out.)

Can you help me figure out what wheels might fit where here? I recognize the different wheels, I think, but just can't figure out the geometry of how they would fit along that central area. Thanks in advance.

[zeFiF]

This is what I think, it could be completely wrong :

[zeFiF]

Version 2 :

[phopwood]

I always take a pictures of each part as I remove them, makes life so much easier. I also stick my screws to some old rodico, then I always get them back in the right place.

The wheel with the long pinion drives the second hand, the other two should be easy to figure out from there.

peter

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[spacetimefabric]

Thanks, Zefif. I'm trying your version 2 right now. Version 1 wouldn't have worked because that hole where you have the leftmost wheel going is the pin lever.

Phopwood: yes, I totally regret not taking at least one pic of the assembled. The rodico advice sounds great. Will use next time.

Trying to figure it out right now. The wheel barrel seems to be getting in the way a bit, but maybe things will fit. Will keep all posted.

[spacetimefabric]

Okay, here's how I have it. Seems to be the configuration. Thanks, guys.

Am now having a hell of a hard time trying to put the bridge back on. The pivots are small to seemingly non-existent. Been trying to do it for the past few hours to no avail. Will keep on trying.

[phopwood]

The pivots can be a right royal pain in the ass to get in. if they are not going in I sometimes use an unfolded staple to move then in to the right place. Be very careful they are fragile.

Peter.

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[tony1951]

I practice dismantling an old pin lever quite often and I find I can often weedle the power train pivots in by very gently manoeuvring the wheels with an oiler or a cocktail stick while peeping in at the underside of the bridge with a x10 loupe under bright light so I can see which way to nudge the wheels to get them in. It seems to me (as a beginner) that I can help things by varying the very gentle finger pressure on the bridge that is going in, so that once in the pivots stay in while I work one by one on the others. My pin lever has a separate bridge for the pallet fork, which in my watch is always the hardest to get set up right.

Gentle patience, good light, fine prodding tools and good maginfication are important to my getting things back together.

I find the high res phone pictures REALLY important, as it is very easy to forget which pivot goes where.

NEVER SCREW THE BRIDGE RIGHT UP OR EVEN NEARLY RIGHT UP UNLESS YOU ARE SURE THAT EVERYTHING IS RUNNING SMOOTH AND FREE. The result of doing so will very likely be a broken pivot if anything is out of line.

[spacetimefabric]

Thanks for the tip. My challenge is with the escape wheel pivot. There's hardly a hole there. When I put the bridge on, it always teeter left or right. I've tried adjusting with a small wire, but can't seem to get it in place, even though visually it looks like it is. When I wind up the watch and let down the spring, just to see if things are turning, it seems as if the other wheels are moving, but the escape wheel is still, and thus, the balance stays still, and nothing else moves.

[trim]

It is better to learn on a fully jeweled watch - as you can see through the jewels to some extent.

Tapping with the handle of a tweezer can make the wheels stand straight before you put the bridge on.