Trimline and desk phone problems with ringer

[troydog]

Hi I am new here and hope you might be able to help.

So where to start. I got 2 phones hooked up one in the bedroom other in the living room. Both are rotary phones.

One is a trimline older unit with the plug in wall wart for the light

Other is a ITT black desk rotary I bought it new at a store in about the mid 80's or early 90's it was the last ones they made think it is the 500 type.

So the problem is this I have done a few things no luck fixing it.

If I dial the phone trimline rotary the ITT makes a ding sound so say I dial 4 ITT goes ding ding ding ding.


So what I have done so far. I lost the book for the itt but no big deal.

I open the case it is a easy layout unit all wires plug into the network inside of it. I switched the bell wires no go.

Did the same on the trimline no go

switch the line wires no luck there also.

The itt ringer is the 2 bell type but has a ball barring to ring the bells. If "i turn down the itt ringer it stops with the ding sound. But that stinks. lol

Also thinking maybe the power wall wart was screwing with it. Not the case.  The phone company never hooked up the yellow black wire outside so no feed back problems. I even used a meter on the wall jack both yellow black show no power feed.

So any ideal how to stop the itt from going ding ding ding as I dial the other phone?

Thanks for any help at all.

[AE_Collector]

Welcome to the rotary forum. I'm no expert at all on these types of phones but "bell tap" is fairly common on phones with mechanical ringers when other rotary dial phones are on the same line.

There is a little bias spring on the ringer that you can try moving to different positions to see if that stops the bell from jingling. Also, the actual bells (gongs) can be rotated on their mounting screws (holes are drilled slightly off centre) which will move the gong  slightly further away from the clapper which might solve the problem as well.

Give that a try and stay tuned, there will be many more posts here soon with more info on how to solve your problem.

Terry

[jsowers]

Here's a great shot Dennis made of the bias spring...

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=2905.0;attach=15012;image

Troydog, you may have to move the spring in the opposite direction. Whichever way it is, move it the other way and then see if it taps when dialing. Also, notice the spacing between the bells in Dennis' picture. The clapper shouldn't be touching the bell on the left. As Terry said, both of them can be adjusted closer or farther away from the clapper.

[troydog]

Thanks been away for a few days.

The itt ringer has a ball barring and magnet. The way it works is the ball barring shacks and hits the a b bell. I can upload a photo of it if that would help.

[troydog]

[jsowers]

Gee, I've never seen a ringer like that. With all the plastic, it looks cheaply made from the pictures. Likely a result of cost-cutting in the later days of 500 set production. I'm not sure there's much you can do, other than try to adjust the bells a little. From the back of the phone, see if turning the left bell a little so it's farther away from the clapper (ball bearing?) or whatever makes it tap less when you dial the Trimline. As I said before, it shouldn't touch when it's at rest. You need a small gap there.

Does it hit both bells or just one? You can hold your finger or put a screwdriver on one of the bells to see which one is tapping the most and try to adjust it out if you can by loosening the screw that holds the bell a little and turning the bell very slightly one way or the other.

It may be that one of the Forum members has a ringer from an older phone they can send you, so you can see what a decent ringer looks like. It wouldn't be original to your phone, but it sure would work better. From the looks of the mounting screws, I think it would mount just fine.

[troydog]

Ask my ITT was out to save a lot of money but still got there cut on the deal. I paid 78.88 for it new in I think 1992. I wonder how many folks never seen the inside of there phone and would be shocked at the cheap build of it.

So I think I will turn the ringer off unplug it and use the phone as a dining room unit.

So I bought this last night not sure the year of it or the make.
http://www.shopgoodwill.com/viewItem.asp?ItemID=8322809

[LarryInMichigan]

troydog,

You bought a Western Electric 302, one of the most classic phones of all time.  It looks like a metal one which places it in the 1939-1941 time frame.  Everyone loves WE 302s.  You should have no trouble making it work.

Larry

[troydog]

Larry Thanks for the info on the new phone I had no clue what it was. lol

Now looking at them should it have a straight cord for the handset?

Also this is going to be fun. Can I take a cheap wall jack baseboard type. Add a short modular phone cord to it hook the old phone to the jack and just plug it into the wall? I hate dsl filters or I would just hook it the old way. Heck was was the name of the jack that adapter on it now plugs into?DO they still make it