AE Model 90

[stub]

joey67,
            Your phone wiring doesn't match the diagrams I have so I won't be of much help. Sorry   stub

[AE_Collector]

I don't have diagrams or phones with me to check but would try moving the red wire from 4G to L2 and if that doesn't make it ring try it on L1 instead. Won't hurt anything. Looks like it is set up for the typical arrangement to ground one side of the ringer for party lines.

Terry

[stub]

Terry,
         This is the only diagram I have that is manually adjusted. I can't get all the pics to load up ( dial up ) to see where everything goes  .    stub

[AE_Collector]

Thanks Ken. Not exactly the same but pretty close.

I'm still going with "Move the red lead from 4G and put it with the blue lead on L2".

Terry

[joey67]

I have made my best attempt at wiring this phone to make it ring and to take all of your advice.

Thank you all for your help. 

I have resolved myself to the fact that it just isn't going to happen; I quit !

[GG]

Joey, here's the generic method for AE phones that's worked for me:

(BTW, you do have a straight-line ringer there.)

AE ringer assemblies of that vintage have four wires coming out.  Two from the bell coils themselves, and two from the large gray capacitor mounted next to the coils on the same bracket. 

One way or another you want to have the following setup:  Connect one side of the bell coil to L1.  Connect the other side of the bell coil to one side of the capacitor only (screw these wires down to an otherwise un-used terminal on the black terminal strip below the dial).  Connect the other side of the capacitor to L2.  Also be sure the white volume control wheel (if present) is adjusted to enable the bell clapper to pivot freely on its hinge at the back of the ringer (you can adjust it further subsequently to get the desired volume). 

If that doesn't work, then it's possible your bell coil is "open" (broken wire) and it can't ring.  But that problem is rare, and the above should work. 

[joey67]

I will give this a try.
I don't believe the bell coils are open, if the were when I ohm across them they would show as an open, they ohm as low resistance.

Thanks for your help GG

[GG]

Thanks Joey.  Two more things: 

1)  Let's assume you have the AE 90 and some other dial phone connected to the same CO line.   Now you pick up the other phone and dial, and your AE 90 goes ding-ding-ding along with the dial pulses.  Or maybe it only goes tick-tick-tick along with the dial pulses.  That's called "bell tapping." 

What's up there is that the ringer is connected "backward" for the line polarity.  The solution is really simple: reverse the polarity of the wiring of the bell on the AE 90 (swap the two wires from the bell coil, leave the rest of the wiring as-is).  That'll get rid of the bell tapping. 

2)  Normally AE ringers are l-o-u-d from the times when you might have one phone in the house that had to be heard throughout the house.  Here's what to do if you want to reduce the ringer volume while keeping the tone of both bells being struck by the clapper:

Go back to Stub1953's photo on page 1, showing a harmonic ringer sitting on top of a straight-line ringer for comparison. 

Notice that on the straight-line ringer, there is a small screw on the clapper mechanism just to the left of the pivot point.  If you loosen that screw just a little, you'll notice that the clapper mechanism does not pivot quite as far: it's closer to the poles of the coil.  The screw changes the degree to which the metal piece it's screwed into is flexed: tightening it flexes the metal more, pulling it back from the pole pieces; loosening it allows the metal to straighten out, getting tighter to the pole pieces. 

So loosen the screw just a little and notice that the clapper does not move quite as far in each direction.  Now loosen the screws that hold the bells themselves, and rotate the bells in just a bit closer.  With the correct adjustment, the clapper will be just a tiny bit clear of each bell.  Thus when it rings, it strikes each bell but does not remain in contact with the bell, allowing the bell to ring rather than just making a metallic thud.  But since it's swinging over a reduced arc, it doesn't strike each bell with as much force, thus producing a quieter ring.  If you fiddle with these adjustments, you can get an AE 80 or 90 to ring as quietly as a WE 500 with the control turned down low, so if you're sitting in the same room when it rings, you won't jump out of your chair : - )   I have some very well-behaved AE 80s by way of this little adjustment.

---

Other:

There is a later style of AE ringer, used on the 80E but sometimes found in older 80s and 90s (it would have been added later as a replacement part), in which there is only one coil rather than two, and the bells are mounted with the domes facing the opposite direction, and the volume control is a little lever rather than a wheel.  There's a different method of adjustment for that type of ringer, that has to do with using a needlenose pliers to gently and subtly adjust the position of the metal finger that strikes a stop adjacent to the movable bell gong.  That's another story for another day. 

On AE 86s and 87s, there is a ringer that looks quite a bit like the C4A, I'll guess it was made by Leich, and it should be adjusted in a manner similar to a C4A, but that is also another story for another day.

[joey67]

GG,

Thank you for everything! The phone is now ringing! I took me a few treys to get it the way you described, but I did get it. I have to play some more with adjusting but I'll get that too.

Thank you everyone for all of your help and advice. I am a happy AE 90 owner.    

[GG]

Joey, excellent!