How to move a grandfather clock
Researched and written by Ashley Davis · Reviewed by Emily Johnson · Last reviewed August 2026
A grandfather clock is dismantled before it is lifted, and the order is fixed: weights out, pendulum off, chime rods and hammers secured, then the movement. The movement hangs on a thin suspension spring, and tilting the case with the pendulum still attached is what shears it. Nothing about the case tells you any of this has gone wrong.
Why do the weights come out first?
Because they are heavy, they swing, and they are not interchangeable. Most clocks carry two or three weights of different masses driving time, strike and chime, and refitting them in the wrong positions makes the clock run wrong rather than not at all. Photograph them hanging in place, then label each one left, centre or right as it comes off.
What happens if the pendulum stays on?
The suspension spring takes the load. The pendulum hangs from a strip of spring steel only a fraction of a millimetre thick, sized for a hanging weight and nothing else, and a case carried at an angle with the pendulum attached bends or shears it. Lift the pendulum off its hook, wrap it separately, and keep it flat rather than coiled.
What about the chime rods and the movement?
The chime rods are long brass rods tuned by length, and a bent rod plays a wrong note that no adjustment fixes. Cushion them with soft packing so nothing can strike them, and immobilise the chime hammers so they cannot swing against the rods in transit. On many clocks the movement itself lifts out and travels boxed, which is safer than leaving it in the case.
How does the case travel?
Upright, blanket-wrapped, strapped to a dolly, with the glass door taped shut and padded. The case is tall, narrow and top-heavy once empty, so it tips more easily than its weight suggests. Two people, one steering, and never laid on its back, since even an empty case flexes at the joints when it is carried flat.
What happens at the other end?
The case is levelled first, because a clock out of level stops within a day, then the movement, chime rods, pendulum and weights go back in reverse order. Setting it in beat, so the tick and the tock are evenly spaced, is a job for a clock repairer if the clock will not run. Do not force the hands backwards past the chime.