The other day, with the car turned off (battery tender on and green) a LOUD buzzing sound started coming from my 1980 Corvette. *I thought it was a lawn mower outside the garage. *When I checked, I found that it was coming from the instrument cluster above the radio. *All switches were off and the ignition was off. *I disconnected the battery and the noise stopped.
Monday morning I reconnected the battery and tried pulling fuses to stop the noise, to no avail I tried the fan to see if that was the noise (the noise was very much like a fan with a leaf stuck in it or a broken blade), but the fan worked fine with its usual sound. *When I reconnected the battery, the second hand on the clock (which has always worked well) went backwards for 10 seconds and stopped, never to go again. *The noise continued as I drove to my mechanic. *About halfway there (1.5 miles) the noise got lower in volume and eventually stopped. *
I'm thinking it had to be the clock, but it was awfully loud for so small an electric motor.
Anybody ever hear of this before?

 

I would put my money on the clock

Schoon

 

odd things vette's put in front of you, but if your clock is out now, and noise has stopped and the rest of the gauges still work, then i think you've got your answer. even the smallest gears can create an amazing sound, and if it is one thing that will still run on the gauge panel when the car is off is the clock.

 

Are the 80 clocks motorized?

In 73 they were still using the old spring clocks w/ electric snap wind. You could here it click/snap about every 15 minutes if things were very quiet. The problem w/ them was when the contacts burned and developed hi resistance, they would no longer wind the spring.

 

i have the same problem in my 81, but i dont have a clock. When i hit the gas a little it goes away.