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Deco tel ringer doesn't work

Started by damonj192, July 11, 2016, 12:59:29 AM

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damonj192

Hi there, I recently purchased a used deco tel rotary phone and everything appears to work except the ringer. When I look on the bottom of the phone base there is a slot that appears to be for a volume switch but there were only 2 wires there that were taped together, 1 blue and 1 black wire. I took the plate apart and everything appears to be there except for this switch that I assume these wires go to. Can anyone suggest anything or give some advice? Thank you in advance.

AE_Collector

#1
Going to need pictures inside. I believe these came with the small single gong ringers and as such would not have had a ringer volume control. If an AE ringer the blue and black leads from the ringer will not be used and should be seperately insulated, not connected together. But it might be different brand of ringer in which case I am not certain about those leads then.

With almost all phones from the 60's & 70's the ringers were usually set up for grounded ringing rather than bridged ringing in order to easily install the phone for private or party line service. Very often the ringers remain connected to only one of the line wires and the ground terminals in the phone so the ringer won't work until this is corrected. That is where the pictures of the wiring come in!

Welcome to our forum by the way.

Terry

poplar1

#2
It appears to have Western Electric parts. In that case, the black ringer wire goes to L1 -- where the green wire from the line cord is connected. The red ringer wire should be on K. The other ringer wires should not be connected. These are gray, gray with red stripes, and on some ringers, blue. The Western Electric ringer would not have an on-off switch, rather a white plastic piece (visible on the bottom of the phone) that slides back and forth in the slot in order to change the ringer volume.
"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

damonj192

Here's a pic of the inside. Hope this helps. Thank you.

rdelius

Those are AE parts.Look for a diagram for a later starlite or a type 192? wall set

damonj192

Is there anywhere in the assembly in the picture that the blue wire and black wire should go to? Thank you in advance

rdelius

Do not connect them. They are taps.That AE ringer is not the best quality

stub

 damonj192,
                    Tape and store the black and blue leads , place a jumper wire from network #6 to network #9 or you can  connect the wall side of the line in green and yellow wires together and it should work if , as rdelius said, this AE ringer is not the best quality.  stub
Kenneth Stubblefield

AE_Collector

The ringer is hooked to ground for party line use. Remove that capacitor lead that is hooked with the yellow cord lead. Leave the yellow lead where it is OR insulate and store it OR just cut it off since it doesn't have spade lugs anyway. Swing the capacitor lead that you removed over to the screw terminal that the green cord lead is on.

(Stub and I were replying at the same time)

Terry

damonj192

I did the jumper wire between 6&9 and also disconnected the yellow wire. Thank you for all your help. Ringer works but now I hear what you guys were saying about the quality. Is there a better style of ringer I can put in?

RotoTech99

Actually, the AE 46 and 46A mini ringer are good ringers, but it takes adjusting the airgap between the gong and clapper to get a louder or softer ring, and adjusting the bias tension.

The AE 46 and 46A's are comparable to WE's M-Type ringer, and ITT's mini ringer 148. The AE 46 is the older version ringer, and the 46A is the newer version with the coil and armature/clapper design changed from a fixed clapper ball to one that could move/rotate slightly on the end of the clapper arm when in motion from ringing. A 3rd slight redesign of the clapper/armature
made the clapper ball a thick round washer look, and the arm was bent slightly out at the front so it would work well on the AE46A ringer.

It appeared in later DecoTel sets with AE internals.

As to the connections: Connect the red ringer wire to 10 on the network, and the green wire on 16. The ringer condenser, a .47mF, 250 VDC one goes to 8 and 16.  This is also true of the Type 80 and other AE "modern sets".

The one thing that AE should have considered adding to the AE 46 would be a volume control lever.

RotoTech99