This is why I love this hobby...

[Greg G.]

Most of the time, even a technically untrained and inexperienced person such as myself can work on and get these things functioning with only a screwdriver.  Often it's only a matter of moving a wire or two or three around.  Like with my Leich's I just got.  The schematics gave easy to follow instructions for converting from local to common battery.  In this case, even when there is a problem that I have no technical knowledge of, I was able to resolve by observation.  Example - the phone wasn't hanging up when the handset was on it, but it would hang up if I pushed the switch hook plunger down with my finger.  That told me that something wasn't making contact well enough with just the handset on it.  So I took the cover off and observed it's function and noticed that looking at it from the back, the left side of the switch hook is supposed to make contact with another metal part when depressed.  A simple "high-tech" adjustment fixed that (bending it slightly so the left side was a little lower).

I just did one of the two I got recently last night, and it now functions as an answer-only telephone, although the receiver has a hiss in it.  Only thing I did different from what the schematics said is I did not remove the generator, I just disconnected it, taped off the spade wire ends and left it in.  There was one part of the schematics that I didn't understand though, where is says "Strap 5 & 8."  I just left them as is, and it seems to function ok.  I also wasn't sure of the difference between "metallic" and "grounded" ringing, so I went with the "metallic".  I did everything else it said to do for a non-dial phone.

My fist inclination is to leave it as is, but I'm thinking a dial may look better.  What kind of dial goes in these, e.g. WE, AE, model #?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr7k-GfEC50

[LarryInMichigan]

Those phones would have had AE dials, but they need special mounting hardware.

Larry

[dsk]

Interesting!
Do you know the winding ratios on that induction coil?

dsk

[GG]

Leich was eventually brought into General Telephone which also bought AE, so they may have had a close relationship with AE prior to that, hence the preference for AE dials on those.

However if you can find another one with the magneto, you can make the magneto system work and have a super cool household intercom between two points. 

If you're getting a hiss in the receiver, look for a snake trapped in the phone:-)   

Seriously though, if it's a continuous high-pitched hiss, it may be the result of DSL leakage, so try putting a DSL filter on the line before it.  Or if it's a hissing, crackling, frying sound, you may have a) a very marginal handset cord, b) a partially fried transmitter, c) a partially fried capacitor, in that order of probability.  Clipping a fixed resistor of about 200 ohms across the transmitter contacts in lieu of the actual transmitter will determine if it's the transmitter or not, and various tests with an ohmeter can isolate whether it's the handset cord or the capacitor.

[Wallphone]

Brinybay, "Strap" means to run a jumper wire, it is shown in the diagram. You need to jump "strap" 5 & 8 so that L1 will go through the induction coil at induction coil wire #4. Metallic ringing is what you want. Grounded ringing is when you use the Yellow line wire for Earth return on the ringer. Strap 5 & 8 and see what you get. If it didn't make a difference they wouldn't tell you to do it. Below is what the dial adapter and rubber dust shield look like. They show up on eBay once in awhile but usually go unsold because no one knows what the heck they are for.
DSK, There isn't a chart on the Leich #28 Induction coil in Old-Time Telephones! so I don't know where you would find that info.
Doug Pav

[HarrySmith]

I happen to be working on one of these right now and I was about to post a question in a new thread but since this is on topic I will put it here.

It is a Leich "convertible" no ID on the bottom and the wiring diagram reads "501 - 506". It came with the adapter and a nice AE dial. The issue I am having is with the ringer, it came with what is obviously a frequency ringer, very thick clapper arm and adjustable clapper. I am replacing it with a WE 2 wire ringer from a 302 but I cannot get it to ring properly. The WE ringer just barely vibrates, not enough to strike the gongs. I have tried wiring it both ways according to the diagram, metallic & grounded ringing. I also tried tracing wires from the coil and wiring to that with no results. What am I missing??

[Wallphone]

Harry, Try connecting the ringer to L1 & L2 bypassing the condenser to make sure that is not your problem. If it doesn't ring by doing it that way then you probably have a bad ringer. If it does ring then you probably have a bad condenser, but you can hide a small 1uf capacitor from Radio Shack into the circuit somewhere.
Doug Pav

[dsk]

The ringer has to bee in series with a capacitor in hence to tell the exchange "off hook".
The 302 ringers are designed to work in series with a 0.5uF capacitor but will ofcourse work nice with
1uf too, just a little higher REN. 

dsk

[GG]

Wallphone is mistaken, and you need to know this:

A ringer typically consists of one or two electromagnet coils.  If you connect it directly across a telephone line, it will draw DC current and make it appear as if the phone is off-hook.

Ringers always need to be wired in series with capacitors.   Exceptions are very rare (certain types of magneto phones) and if you have one, you'll probably know it.   The purpose of the capacitor is to block the flow of DC through the ringer coil so the phone will not appear "off hook," while allowing the AC ringing signal to pass through and ring the bells.

The capacitors used in the USA for most "straight-line" ringers, range from about 0.4 microfarad, to about 1.0 microfarad: any value in that range "should" work, and 0.5 microfarad at 200 volts is very typical and should almost always work.

For telephones used in other countries (e.g. the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, etc.), the ringer coils are of lower impedance (typically about half that for American ringers) and the capacitors are of higher values, such as typically 1.0 microfarad. 

---

If a ringer doesn't ring but you can see the clapper vibrating, look for the "bias spring," which is a little springy wire that fits into a notch or groove somewhere on the frame of the ringer.  Gently move it to a different notch or position and notice that it takes less finger pressure to move the clapper than it did before.   Now test the ringer again and see if it rings.   Note, if the bias is set too low, the ringer may jingle while dialing from another phone on the same line. 

Also, generally most lines are limited to supporting a maximum of 5 ringers, so to be safe, don't have more than 2 - 3 antique phones ringing on your CO line (if you want more, use a PBX, and give each phone its own extension on the PBX).

[AE_Collector]

Hi Wallphone:

So is the bracket you posted the picture of all that is nbeeded (other than a dial) to convert a Leich 901 from Magneto to Dial? I have three Leich 901's and have always thought that I should convert one of them to dial. I don't think that I have ever tried to remove the big bakelite cover from the 901 dial/magneto area. Is the hole in the case just right for a dial?

Terry

[Wallphone]

DSK & GG, Thanks for being so polite in telling me I was full of it with the ringer test. I stand corrected. Ironically I was just reading about ringers in Old-Time Telephones but apparently didn't read far enough into it before I posted. I was reading about the "Sure Fire" ringer which didn't need a condenser wired in series, but those ringers had a higher impedance than the receiver circuit so you didn't get a false off-hook situation. Also, I thought that I had previously bench tested ringers w/o a condenser but once I got my memory back I realized that I was using a 425B network with the condenser already there.
Mr. AE Collector, AFAIK the bracket & the dust shield are all you need to convert to dial operation. The hole is round under the magneto cover and my (faulty) memory tells me that the dust shield is a little bit sloppy in the hole but looks good from a distance. Attached are some eBay pics.
Doug Pav

[dsk]

This http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=2131.0 contains more info about ringers.

dsk

[AE_Collector]

AFAIK the bracket & the dust shield are all you need to convert to dial operation. The hole is round under the magneto cover and my (faulty) memory tells me that the dust shield is a little bit sloppy in the hole but looks good from a distance. Attached are some eBay pics.
Doug Pav

Uh, Oh.....My 901's all have bakelite baseplates and I am always confused between 601's and 901's. The picture shows a metal baseplate though so maybe that is part of the difference between 601 and 901.

I think I should open up a 901 and see what things look like inside.

Terry

[Greg G.]

Brinybay, "Strap" means to run a jumper wire, it is shown in the diagram. You need to jump "strap" 5 & 8 so that L1 will go through the induction coil at induction coil wire #4. Metallic ringing is what you want. Grounded ringing is when you use the Yellow line wire for Earth return on the ringer. Strap 5 & 8 and see what you get. If it didn't make a difference they wouldn't tell you to do it. Below is what the dial adapter and rubber dust shield look like. They show up on eBay once in awhile but usually go unsold because no one knows what the heck they are for.
DSK, There isn't a chart on the Leich #28 Induction coil in Old-Time Telephones! so I don't know where you would find that info.
Doug Pav

Ok, "strapped" 5 & 8.  Also discovered that the "hiss" was coming from the other vintage phone I was using to dial with.  No hiss when I dialed using a different phone. 

[Greg G.]

Mr. AE Collector, AFAIK the bracket & the dust shield are all you need to convert to dial operation. The hole is round under the magneto cover and my (faulty) memory tells me that the dust shield is a little bit sloppy in the hole but looks good from a distance. Attached are some eBay pics.
Doug Pav

Definitely looks better with a dial.  Will any old AE dial do?  I may have one kicking around.  Just need the adapter thingamajig.