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Odd mods done to phones?

Started by AdamAnt316, July 19, 2015, 03:34:43 PM

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AdamAnt316

Hello, everyone. One of my recent finds made me curious as to what modifications others may have seen that had been done to phones they'd found. Last weekend, I picked up a WE 500 set in plain black, circa 1955. Exiting out the back of said phone were both the original line cord, and a piece of white quad cable with a small modular junction box on the end. When I removed the housing, I found that the quad cable had been zip-tied to the original line cord at the point where it enters the housing, with the wires of the quad cable attached to the appropriate terminals on the network, and the spade lugs on the original line cord had been disconnected and taped off. Seems rather awkward, but it did make returning the phone to its original state fairly easy, which I appreciated. Why might it have been done this way? Has anyone ever seen something like this done to a phone they'd found? Figured I'd throw it out there...
-Adam

andre_janew

There is a thread around here about a WE 302 phone that has a modern network and a North D-1 ringer inside.  It worked just the way it was.  I imagine someone was fixing it up, but didn't have the right parts and just did the best with what they had.  I think the title of the thread was, "What is this?" 

AdamAnt316

Well, it seems I may have found the reason why the retrofit was done: the red wire on the original line cord is open!  :-\ Still not sure why the replacement was done in such an odd fashion, but at least I now have some understanding...  :-[
-Adam

JimH

This thread reminds me of my very first "old" telephone.  It was a black metal 302 from 1941 that I bought at a garage sale for $1 that "started it all".  It didn't work, and the parts inside were old and foreign to me.  I'd never seen the inside of one.  It was 1980, I was 15 years old, and I wanted to make it work. There was no internet, no one to ask, no wiring diagrams, no "working" 302 to compare to, so I went down to our local drug store that happened to sell new AE "Starlite" telephones.  I bought one, stripped all of the parts off the base of the 302, and mounted all of the "guts" of the Starlite rotary dial phone to the base of the 302.  I remember having to study the contacts on the 302's dial to get the wires from the corresponding dial of the Starlite to be the same.  I got it working. I even had to put a piece of an old rubber car mat under the circuit board that I mounted onto the 302 base so it wouldn't short out.  I still have the phone, with the pitiful attempt at a spray paint job all chipped off.  It's on my "to do" list to restore.
Jim H.

andre_janew

Have you tried it recently?  Does it still work?  It would also be interesting to see the insides of your modified 302 and have you explain what you did and why. 

JimH

I replaced the chassis years ago with one that came from a 5302 with a badly cracked case.  I tossed out the "modified" chassis and all the parts as soon as I began to acquire more phones.  The reason I did it originally was because I wanted a working phone, and this was the only way, with the resources available at the time (35 years ago), that I could do it.

Jim
Jim H.

andre_janew

Too bad.  That would've been interesting to see, especially on this thread.  Even so, I'm glad to hear you got a proper chassis for it.

JimH

Quote from: andre_janew on July 27, 2015, 12:51:44 PM
Too bad.  That would've been interesting to see, especially on this thread.  Even so, I'm glad to hear you got a proper chassis for it.
I know, I should have saved it for posterity, it being my first effort at telephone tinkering. 

Jim
Jim H.