Western Electric 653A ringing problem

[Jf510]

Hi..I am working on a Western Electric 653A wall telephone. The phone has a #4 dial and the ringer has a 700 on it. I followed the wiring diagram and after checking it a few times I feel I did it correctly. The diagram says to connect one ringer lead to K and the other to L1. When doing so the phone shorts and goes to intercept. I reversed the ringers leads and then also the slate/yellow leads on the 1 MF capacitor with no results. The diagram had the slate wire on the 1 MF going to K and the yellow to L2Y. With the ringer disconnected the phone operates fine. At this point I am stumped.

[poplar1]

You may have a defective ringing capacitor (short).

[Jf510]

Hi..you mean that 1MF capacitor? Does it look like I wired it correctly?

[poplar1]

Hi..you mean that 1MF capacitor?

Yes (yellow and slate conductors)

Does it look like I wired it correctly?

Yes. I usually put the red ringer wire with red line wire on L1, black ringer wire and slate capacitor wire on K, and yellow capacitor wire on Y-L2, but is should work as you have it wired.

         (red)             (black)           (slate)                         (yellow)
L1<---------ringer---------->K<---------------capacitor----------------->L2

You may want to connect just the ringer and 1 MF capacitor (without the talk circuit) just to isolate it, but if the 1 MF capacitor is shorted, the ringer will either short the line immediately (the line will be busy); or, when you call your land line, it will "trip ring" (answer the line on the first ring, then busy out the line).

[Victor Laszlo]

Put your meter on the cap and let us know if it's shorted.

[Jf510]

I put my small ohm meter on the leads of the disconnected cap and it went 2/3 of the way and not all the way like a short. I am not sure what that means.

[rdelius]

Leakage. You should see a kick and the meter should go back down. No resistance

[Jf510]

I put my meter back on the leads and it just went 2/3 the way and stayed there.

[rdelius]

Bad leakage If it leaks with your low voltage meter it is really bad if high voltage is applied.It is bad replace it.You need a .5 to about 1 uf capacator with a voltage rating of 250 or so volts of higher.

[Jf510]

I took out a 1MF from a ringer box just to see if it worked on my 653A and indeed it did so I had in fact a bad capacitor so thanks for the advice. I would not of figured it out without your help.

[Victor Laszlo]

It's always a good idea to check things with a meter, first, before the wrong ideas start to get clogged in your brain.

[Jf510]

I don't know how to use a meter that well just the basic so I wouldn't know what to look for so the advice I was giving here was really helpful.