NEW TO THE FORUM....NEED HELP WITH PHONE

[KIMMDC]

Hi. My name is Kimm and I have a phone that won't ring. Everything else seems to work fine. Also, I would love to know what type of phone it is and what its value might be. I would love to get it up and working. Thanks!

BTW...I'm the one who removed the bells. I have them so that's not the issue.

[Bill]

That appears to be a nice example of a Western Electric 302. It obviously needs a new handset cord, but other than that, appears to be in pretty good condition.

In my experience, "failure to ring" problems are almost always the result of miswiring - usually meaning that it has been wired for a party-line setup instead of single line. Correcting this is easy, but does require that you be able to follow a simple diagram. Fortunately, Dan/Panther has put some nioce diagrams on this site. For example, look at
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=2761.0 or
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=2762.0

Failure to ring can also be due to a bad capacitor (condenser). It looks like you have unscrewed the bracket holding the condenser - is there a reason why?

As for value, it can vary wildly depending on whether it works (of course), but also on cosmetic condition. In current condition, maybe $40 as a wild guess? Some people restore and refinish these phones to showroom shine, or even shinier, but refinishing to this state is a lot of work. When this is done, they sell in the vicinity of $200. Rummage around on eBay for some examples - there are a lot of 302s in various condition for sale.

Bill

[LarryInMichigan]

Kimm,

Welcome the the forum.  Your phone is an earlier WE model 302.  These were made with metal shells until the beginning of the war.  The wiring in yours is wrong.  The black rubber wire does not belong where it is.  If it is part of the handset cord, it should be attached to the "BK" terminal on the dial.  The diagram here: Link should be helpful.

Your phone looks like it has a #4 dial (which clicks loudly while returning) which would increase the phone's value.  If that is the case, it should be worth at least $40.  It is apparently missing at least a couple of screws as well as ringer gongs.  I would strongly recommend replacing the missing screws to prevent anything from breaking.  Someone here might have spares, or you can probably obtain the missing parts from Steve Hilsz (http://phonesurplus.com/).

Larry

[KIMMDC]

Thanks for the replies I received so far. I am completely new to this so I'll have to sit down with those diagrams and do some tinkering. They look on the complicated side to my newbie eyes. I appreciate the help and information and hope to get my phone ringing beautifully soon!

[bingster]

Diagrams can indeed look daunting at first.  The trick is to pick just one single wire from the diagram and find the path of the same wire on your phone.  Move along one wire at a time, until you've got them all sorted out.