Debug Hints

It takes a surprisingly small amount of friction near the escapement to stall the gear train when there is around a 500:1 gear reduction. My guess is to look on the right side close to the escapement.

The debug steps should be listed in the assembly guide. Here are the important ones:

Every gear must be drilled to be loose on the arbor.

Every gear needs to have some end shake after assembly into the frame.

The gears that pass through the frame need to rotate freely. This would be gears 6 and 9 on this clock.

Gear 3 behind the escapement is connected solidly to arbor, so the arbor must rotate freely inside the frame.

If all of these checks pass, then start removing gears one by one to see if you can identify the trouble spot. Start with the escapement, then gear 2, 3, and 5. You may need a spacer to hold some of the gears in position along the arbor for some of the steps.

The moon phase operation is only two gears and a friction clutch. Make sure that both gears can move freely. Touch the gears and they should move slightly. Test the friction clutch by manually rotating the moon dial by reaching behind the main dial. There should be a small amount of resistance.

Another possibility is that you need to wait longer to see the moon phase rotate. The moon dial makes one complete rotation every 59 days. This gives a full moon cycle of 29.5 days.

There are lots of places to check for friction.

Start by checking that every gear has some end shake within the frame. The escapement also needs some end shake between gear 2 and the stop collar.

Then check that every gear spins freely on its arbor. All arbors should also rotate within the frame. This is especially true for the escapement arbor since gear 2 is rigidly connected to the arbor.

Finally, start testing pairs of gears rotating inside the frame. Keep adding extra gears and checking again. The resistance changes every time another gear is added, but should not change dramatically.

Steve

Just to clarify, are you saying that the escapement doesn't rotate when you manually move the pendulum back and forth?

This would tell you to look for friction in the gear train.

Start by looking for physical defects like blobs or elephant foot, focusing directly where the gears are meshing when the clock stops.

Look from the sides to see if any sideways interference is occurring.

Move each gear in and out to check for end shake. Also notice if the escapement starts spinning again as you touch each gear.

Check that the cord is not binding on itself.

The next steps involve taking the clock apart to double check that every gear spins freely on the arbor and within the frame. These steps are outlined in the assembly guide.

You can try greasing the pinion teeth to see if things improve. Very little grease is needed. It will work into the main gear teeth.

Remove the pallet and let the gears spin until the weight hits the floor. Sometimes this loosens things up.