Wiring a 701B with external ringer

[Dave]

Hi all,

New member here.

I'm not a hardcore phone guy, I'm a hard core 50s and 60s guy. Accordingly I've amassed a small collection of phones for my favorite era.



My phone education level is probably fairly low, but I'm a bright guy, I can follow instructions, and I learn pretty quickly. My phone vocabulary might not be perfect, but I'll try and make you understand what I mean when I'm not using the exact term you would.

My question follows: I have a '61, 701B, pink Princess (it's for my little princess) with an external ringer. The cord from the phone to the ringer is attached (maybe correctly or incorrectly - I don't know yet), but there is no line from the ringer to the phone jack. All the jacks in my house are modular so I need to run what I would call a line cord from the ringer to my modular wall jack. I'm not concerned with the light at this time, just getting a dial tone and ring.

Here is the inside of the ringer. Assuming 4 conductor wire with an attached modular connector what do I put where.

Thanking you all in advance.

[jsowers]

I opened up my E1A ringer attached to my pink 701 to be sure of the connections, which I think have been connected since it was new in 1960. It still has a piece of station wire connected too.

Connect the modular line cord red wire to 5, which is the bottom left screw in the picture.

Connect the modular line cord green wire to 6 which is the screw just to the right of the red 5 one. Your red and green mounting cord wires from the phone are already connected to those screws.

Connect the ringer and phone to the phone line and see if you get a dial tone. Then try calling your number from another phone to see if it rings. It may not.

If it doesn't ring, I would try moving the red fabric covered wire (this is the ringer wire) from 7 to 5 where the other red wires are and check again. It may have been wired for ground ringing. I know mine is and I haven't changed it to know for sure. I'm fairly certain the wire colors for the E1A are the same as a C4A 500 set ringer, so it should connect across the line the same way. If it still won't work, post back and I'll try rewiring mine.

Also to connect a 6-volt AC transformer to the dial light, connect it to terminals 4 and 2. You can either connect it to the ringer directly or to the phone jack and connect the yellow and black line cord wires to 4 and 2.

Those ringers were usually mounted to the baseboard, BTW. I remember crawling under my aunt's bed to see what it was, way back when. 

When you move or connect the wires, unplug it from the phone line, just to be safe. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[Dave]

I'm going to repeat something back that I didn't know just to make sure I understood it.

With this external ringer I can connect the power leads to the light and not have to wire them directly into the phone itself. That's kind of cool.

So for the guy who is looking ahead, he might mount this ringer box pretty close to an electrical outlet and not have wires running all over the place.

Thank you, Jonathan.

[bingster]

Exactly right.  The current for the light runs through the phone's cord, so all you'd have to do (assuming all the wiring is correct) is connect an electric supply to the external ringer.  Incidentally, you can use a common 6-volt wall wart transformer to power a princess.  Simply snip off the little plug/jack, and either crimp spade lugs on the ends of the two wires, or leave them as-is.  They go under terminals 2 and 4 of the ringer.

[jsowers]

I'm going to repeat something back that I didn't know just to make sure I understood it.

With this external ringer I can connect the power leads to the light and not have to wire them directly into the phone itself. That's kind of cool.

So for the guy who is looking ahead, he might mount this ringer box pretty close to an electrical outlet and not have wires running all over the place.

Thank you, Jonathan.

You're welcome, Dave. That's how they were done back in the 1960s. If you look, you'll see the black and yellow wires in your picture are connected to terminals with nothing else connected, waiting for the wire from the transformer. A small length of station wire ran from the bell to the transformer (which had screw terminals) and it was plugged into the nearest outlet.

My 701 came with the transformer and ringer still connected and that's how it was wired. And as Bingster says, any 6-volt wall wart from the Goodwill will do. It's going to be fairly hidden anyway, so it doesn't have to be the original type of transformer. Just be sure it's 6 volts. Also, FYI, the lamp used in the 701 Princess is a #46, which may still be available at Radio Shack.

[Dave]

Excellent. I'm off to the thrift store to buy used crap.

Thank you both for your expertise.

[Dave]

It's a good news / bad news kind of thing.

Good news: I have dial tone and light.

Bad news: It doesn't ring, and while it dials out it doesn't recognize the numbers I'm dialing.

With regard to no ring: I moved the fabric covered #7 wire to position #5 (the location of the other red wire) and not only did it not ring, it caused other ringers on other phones to ring intermittently.

With regard to dialing wrong numbers: The dial spins back much faster than my other rotary phones. It's as though the spring is wound tighter. Could this rapid spin-back be related to the phone dialing the wrong numbers?

[jsowers]

Yes, the rapid dial spin means that the small plastic cam isn't pulsing correctly. I've seen that before with early Princesses and it's usually lubrication related. It's not easy to get that dial cleaned, but it can be done. It took me several attempts to get the cam freed up so it moved correctly. I'm not sure it's a job for a beginner.

I'm assuming you have regular POTS phone service and you've tried a rotary phone on it before and it works OK, since you have two other Princesses.

If you look under the dial, you'll see the little plastic cam thing. When you rotate the dial, it's the eccentric piece that pulses the contacts and dials the numbers. It's one of the few plastic things underneath the dial. It may be easier to buy another Princess phone and replace the dial. A dial from a 702 will work fine. Sometimes you can find damaged Princesses for parts that have perfectly good dials.

As for the ringer wiring, let me do some experimentation with mine and I will get back to you. Just leave the wires for the ringer where they were in your pictures. "Before" pictures are always a good idea before you begin, and you have them.

Well, at least you have an answerable phone that lights! Someone on the Forum may have a junker Princess you can buy. I wish I did, but I don't.

[Dave]

Standing by, Jonathan.

You're a good man for helping me out.

[GG]

Dave, I'd suggest searching the forums for the name Steve Hilsz (sp?) who is a dial repair expert.  Speed adjustments on WE dials later than #7 are truly difficult even for most of us around here who can repair our own dials.  Steve does excellent work at remarkably low prices.  You could just send him the entire phone and he'll take care of it. 

In general I've found that: AE dials need adjustment more often but are easier to adjust.  WE dials rarely if ever need adjustment but are harder to adjust. 

[Dave]

I'm leaning towards changing out the whole dial assembly. The beige Princess in my photo above was bought for 99 cents. I figure it can donate a dial assy.

[Argee]

I have a similar issue with a '59 701b not lighting up or ringing.  Should I start a new thread or add to this one?

[Dave]

I'd sit tight right here. Jonathan indicates he'll work on an answer to the no ring problem, and I believe we can work out the no light issue.

In order for the light to work you need the following:

1. Power Source. Could be one of the phone company's 2012A or 2012C transformers or (I used a) cell phone charger that puts out 6 volts at 350ma.

2. Working bulb in a socket.

3. Wiring to connect the two.

Got all that?

[Phonesrfun]

The TCI document library has the connection diagram for the 701B with the E1A ringer.  It can be found here:

http://telephonecollectors.info/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=2208&Itemid=27

Choose the second one down.

[Dave]

The TCI document library has the connection diagram for the 701B with the E1A ringer.  It can be found here:

http://telephonecollectors.info/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=2208&Itemid=27

Choose the second one down.

How 'bout that. Been there, downloaded it, teaching myself how to read this afternoon.

Thank you, Phonesrfun