Strange noise under Midyear dash?

[Patrick T.]

When I'm not going to run the engine for a while, I disconnect the negative terminal on the battery to keep it from running down. When I reconnect the cable to the battery, I hear a faint 'clunk' noise from under the dash on the drivers side.

If I sit in garage, with everything quiet and the engine not running, I continue to hear this 'clunk' noise about every 5 minutes. The engine runs fine and there are no problems that I'm aware of. Is this noise a circuit breaker? Does anyone know what this noise might be? Thanks, Patrick

[Mike M.]

Re: Strange noise under Midyear dash?

its your clock. mike

[Patrick T.]

Re: Strange noise under Midyear dash?

Thanks Mike, that's good news; usually strange noises are bad news. Now that you have piqued my curiousity, would you know why do these old time clocks make clunking noises? Patrick

[Craig S.]

Re: Strange noise under Midyear dash?

Patrick - these clocks have a solenoid actuated rewind with a wind up clock spring. You are hearing the solenoid activate to wind the clock. They wind up every few minutes...Craig

[Patrick T.]

Re: Strange noise under Midyear dash?

Thanks Craig, another mystery of the Universe has been solved for me. I don't think I would find the answer to my question in any book. Patrick

[Ed Jennings]

Re: Strange noise under Midyear dash?

It's when ya don't hear the periodic click that you should worry. If your car does not have a 1 amp fuse installed on the clock circuit, you should install one. You can just install the male/female connectors on the in line fuse and not even cut any wires.
If voltage should become low, the points can close and not have enough energy available to energize the solenoid. Then you have a dead short. The 1 amp fuse can save you a lot of heartache.