wiring 3 wire E handset to #2 AB Western Electric Dial

[TallahasseeTom]

I am replacing a #4 dial on a 202 B1, 3/29 phone with a 1/30 #2 dial(AB).  I know the HB is correct and I have one of those phones and an AB phone and should know how to proceed as I wired those, but years have now passed. I have the other AB to follow as a guide and wish I had the HB with 5th post but do not.  Please advise how to wire the 3 wire coming from the E1 handset and thank you. My extreme color blindness drives me nuts on how to do the wiring.  I have had the experts tell me about this and even sent pictures and all I can find now is candlestick diagrams. Thank you for your help. Tom
I have another #2AB dial and a correct #5 1941 dial with 1941 plate I will sell cheap if anyone needs them.

[unbeldi]

I don't know why you would want to use a 2AB dial on a handset telephone, when you already have the correct dial.  The set will not function properly without loosing important click suppression.

[unbeldi]

To illustrate, here are two diagrams.   The one with the 4H dial is correct.

To other of course is not.  The W terminal on the dial cannot be used.


PS: Someone asked me privately about the switches designated by  X  and |  in the diagrams.   A switch designated by  X is one that is normally open, for example the hookswitch is open until handset is removed.   A switch designated by a simple vertical bar  ( | ) is a normally closed switch, such the dial pulse switch of a standard dial, which only opens for each pulse when the dial returns from a wound-up, off-normal position  to the normal position.

[dsk]

It will work without the RR, just connect the Red from handset to red from subset, tape and call. 
I'm sure the RR terminal came to protect the transmitter, no it will get some more peak voltages, but it will be shunted by the GN-R winding.
dsk

[TallahasseeTom]

Thank you for the answers, all good and helpful.  I have had the 3/29 B1 for years. I think it came with the 634 box but do not recall. It is now a 202 with the 634. Recently I read where some of the early 1929030 B1's came with the 2AB dial.  I have one that apparently did so, having bought it years ago from a young man who took it out of his deceased Grandmother's house in far west Texas, and sold it to me for $150 or so. It works great with the 2AB dial. Is that the way it came?, no way of knowing but it looks quite original and I have not touched it.  It works the same as the same exact phone with a 2HB dial that I have. So, I thought, why not try to put the good 2AB dial I have on it as I doubt I will ever see a #4 dial from 1929-30.  Sounded like an excuse to tinker with a decent phone, maybe not.  All advice is appreciated.

[unbeldi]

Thank you for the answers, all good and helpful.  I have had the 3/29 B1 for years. I think it came with the 634 box but do not recall. It is now a 202 with the 634. Recently I read where some of the early 1929030 B1's came with the 2AB dial.  I have one that apparently did so, having bought it years ago from a young man who took it out of his deceased Grandmother's house in far west Texas, and sold it to me for $150 or so. It works great with the 2AB dial. Is that the way it came?, no way of knowing but it looks quite original and I have not touched it.  It works the same as the same exact phone with a 2HB dial that I have. So, I thought, why not try to put the good 2AB dial I have on it as I doubt I will ever see a #4 dial from 1929-30.  Sounded like an excuse to tinker with a decent phone, maybe not.  All advice is appreciated.

Well, looks are deceiving. What looks good is not necessarily right, especially when "collectors" get involved.    A handset telephone installed in the Bell System would have never had a 2A dial installed, it just doesn't make technical sense.  The 2H dial was specifically created for the handset telephones, so that they could use only a three conductor handset cord, rather than using two separate pairs of conductors for transmitter and receiver, as is the case in the desk stands. I think the common-battery signaling local-battery talking (CBS-LBT) version of the sidetone sets is the only telephone type that could have used a 2A dial, IIRC, but those instruments indeed also had a four-conductor E2 handset.

I suppose people want to use the 2A dials on B1 handset mountings to convert them from manual service to dial service because the 2A dials are so much more plentiful than the 2H dials, which were only made for a period of perhaps three years.  Starting ca. 1930, No. 2 dials were converted to No. 4 dials when needing servicing.  The No 4 dial was needed for the D-type handset mountings that came out in 1930.

[Alex G. Bell]

Better to swap the contact sets between the 4H and 2AB dials, effectively creating a 2H.  Of course I suppose there are "purists" who would consider doing that sacrilege, would prefer to hear dial pulses or clicks in the receiver instead.

The reason for short circuiting the transmitter during dialing is to reduce the circuit resistance during pulsing to improve pulsing performance.