Francisco

More info in this tuto, where the movement is reviewed: Regards, Francisco

Thanks. Why PAM specific A7750? What do you mean? Regards, Francisco

A forum member sent me his Breitling Steelfish with the problem of having a poor power reserve. The movement is a clone ETA 2836-2. The following video shows why the watch has a low power reserve: As seen, when the watch is horizontal and the rotor turns to wing the movement, the rotor spins, in fact unwinding the movement. This only happens when the watch is more or less horizontal (rotor has not vertical weight). Therefore, in the real life, only when the owner is wearing the watch horizontally and he moves the arm, the movement will loose power reserve. REPAIR This behaviour shows a problem in the reversing wheel(s). Therefore, we have to swap the defective reversing wheel to repair it. After removing the case back we see the clone ETA 2836-2 movement The rotor is removed: The two red arrows show the two reversing wheels (RWs) of this movement. Green arrows in following picture show the holes of the screws to be removed. Then we will be able to remove a module where the RWs are located, The module is shown in the two following pictures: Green arrow in previous picture shows a screw to be removed to free the RWs. In next picture this screw and a jewelled plate that fastens the RWs have been removed. Next step is to remove a gear above of one of the RWs: Therefore, now the RWs can be removed, shown on the right: Next step would be buying the spares RWs. As you can imagine only one of the RWs is defective (not very probable both RWs defective at the same time). Unfortunately, the most expensive is which has problems. The other one, quite cheap, is perfect. However, as the price is low I will swap both. Top face of both RWs is practically equal, as seen in previous picture. However, if we look to bottom face, one of them has a pinion. This is very important, because the pinion is the only way to distinguish them when looking for their references. Cousinsuk.com parts numbers To search for spares for ETA 2836-2 we have to take into account that many parts of this movement are not listed, because these parts are compatible with ETA 2820. Hence, in this case we have to know that RWs of 2820 and 2836 are the same pieces. Searching at cousinsuk produces this list: ETA28201530 ETA 2820 1530 Auto Reverser Wheel Without Pinion £2.95 ETA282014885 ETA 2820 1488.5 Auto Reverser Wheel with Pinion and Jewels £12.95 ETA28201488 ETA 2820 1488 Auto Reverser Wheel with Pinion £4.50 There are two references of RWs with pinion and one without pinion. Therefore, the reference for the without pinion RW is clear. And with pinion we have tow references: one without jewels (cheap) and one with jewels (expensive). The clone has a jewelled RW, therefore, we should buy the jewelled one. However, I bought all the references, to check if the RW without jewels is fully compatible. Next picture shows a comparison of Asian / ETA RWs with pinion: As seen, the only way to distinguish them is counting the number of holes. Some time ago this difference was commented by one dealer in this picture, to detect a clone ETA 2836: Following picture shows a comparison of the two ETA RWs with pinion, jewelled and not jewelled: As seen, the jewels seem to be the only difference. I have checked that the not jewelled RW works flawlessly. Therefore, which one to use? Being honest, if this were my watch I would use the cheapest one, because for me to repair it again in the future is not a problem. However, for a forum member we have to employ the best spare available. Assembling again the RWs is very easy; we only have to follow the same steps back. Therefore, this work is not shown. As a curiosity, the hands of the watch were damaged: As previous picture show, lume is very dark and some oxide is visible on the hands. Therefore, we are going to remove the oxide and to re-lume. Old lume is removed employing acetone: Oxide is removed employing Cape Cod: Re-luming: The watch has been repaired: Best wishes, Francisco

+1

You need two tools: 1.- 0.25 broacher 2.- A tool to fasten teh hand tube. Regards, Francisco

I have been banned there

Gen ETA movements are sealed in an aluminium sealed bag. Come on... boys...you know what a rep is...

Yes, you need this, a stem extensor:

Yes, it was. However the thread was too damaged and I bought the gen Oris crown for my Carlos Coste. I chaned the tube... and now works perfectly...

I have been told that heating the water reduces a lot the time to dissolve the stem.... take into account.

First, I would like to thank all the forum members that helped me to discover this technique. Some times the stem may break itself in the way that following picture shows: As seen, there is no enough room to take the stem and to unscrew it from the crown. Therefore, it seems impossible to remove the stem. Hence, a new stem should be bought, what could be sometimes very expensive. In other cases, it is possible to unscrew the stem, but the rest of the stem is too short and the stem is expensive or spares are not available. In such cases, if the broken part is the threaded part, a stem extensor can be used. Next picture shows a stem extensor. The broken stem would be screwed in the small tube. However, in our case, a stem extensor is not useful, as we cannot remove the broken stem form the crown. What we are going to do is to dissolve the stem. This is possible because crown is made of a material much more resistant to corrosion than the stem. To dissolve the stem we will use alum powder. If you cannot find it in a local store, it can be easily found at Ebay. Follows one example: I bought this one: We put quite alum powder in a small glass. Really, I did put twice quantity than the picture shows. The alum powder is dissolved in water. The crown is submerged in the water. Moreover, I added an old stem to see the effect of the alum powder on it.<o><br /> This is a very slow process. The time needed depends, of course, of the amount of stem to be dissolved. I recommend shaking the glass every couple of days.<o><br /> In this case, as I wanted to see the effect on the old stem, I wait quite a long time. Last picture was taken after 9 days. It is possible to see small pieces of the stem on the bottom of the glass.<o><br /> Alter two weeks, the crown is free of the piece of the stem. In addition, the old stem shows this horrific aspect. Please check that one part of the stem is open. Now it is time to check whether the hole of the crown is truly free of small pieces from the stem, and if a new stem can be screwed. It seems so: As next picture shows, there is no any problem to screw a new stem. Therefore, the crown has been repaired.<o><br /> Thanks for reading, Francisco

A repair guy that follows the instructions will not have any problem. That's the reason I wrote them In one case the crown was damaged as well. Fortunatly the gen Oris crown is easily available and it was replaced. Regards, Francisco

There is a "home" fix for that problem: Regards, Francisco

I am planning to make a tuto about this, including the references for all the gaskets needed. However, as the previous message states, normally water resistant is quite good. More later... Francisco

I am planning to make a tuto about this, including the references for all the gaskets needed. More later... Francisco

This is a video I took. A seamaster rep, tested only to 2 ATMS, with my home-made tester. The case back had a problem. Enjoy!

I stopped offering the treatment to Seconds at 6 movements. Those movements are so bad designed that I could not offer any warranty on the treatment. So I took that decision. AP seconds at 12 is not perfect, but better than seconds at 6. Now I am working in one from a member. It helped that the member is from EU. I feel strange.... I mean, I can do the job... but we are not 100% sure if the money is very well employed. In summary, I think graphite helps... but I cannot prove or say that the movement will last twice, or 50%. However, servicing + graphite... is the only solution to improve the movement. Regrads, Francisco.

I am pretty sure taht it will fit. Reference = 55.288 Regards, Francisco

Thanks for sharing! It is a very good news that the length of the stem with the new tube and crown is the same, and you can use the same stem. Regards, Francisco

if you do not have a stem to cut at the same length... just be careful...cut a bit each time with very good pliers.

2 minutes per days can be normally compensated regulating the watch... just do it ans check if the new precision remains constant...

I am not completely sure. I have just begun to apply varnish there. Probably varnish will survive to ultrasonic cleaning.... I will test with a broken movement... Francisco

Just an update about this mod. Lately I am applying a layer of brilliant varnish to the plate where the H is located, after putting the decal on the plate. Now, it is quite more difficult to detect the decal. Some pictures of a fully modded back: added regulator, ETA bearing and bolt, and H with varnish layer:

Hi: The modification is in the top of the movement. Those pictures are fromthe back. It does not matter if the movement has a regulator or not. The problem are the gears that are rotating over the surface of the plate. Regards, Francisco.

Thanks for your thanks! Francisco