Dropped the phone, now it won't dial

[ravingred]

My New England Tel 500DM (I think, that's what the sticker on bottom reads) desk phone won't dial after I so clumsily dropped it.  It still rings and I can still talk if someone calls me.  I have a dial tone, but when I dial nothing happens and the dial tone remains the same.  What did I do??? What can I do??? Help!

[Dennis Markham]

Good afternoon and welcome to the Forum.  I recently did a repair for someone that did the same thing.  What happened in that case was that the finger wheel hit the ground so hard that it caused the gears inside the dial mechanism to jam.  It was an easy fix.

Can you provide some more information about your phone dial?  Can you post a couple of photos.  It would be great if you could remove the cover and then remove the dial from the mounting bracket so we can see the back side of the mechanism.  Once the cover is removed you will see a single screw on either side of the dial, kind of hidden by the round dial bezel.  Just loosen each screw and lift the dial off the bracket.  Then take a photo of the back.  We can go from there.

To upload photos on this Forum, just click on "Additional Options" which appears under the message box.  You will then get a "browse" button and should be able to figure it out from there.

[ravingred]

I've included photos of the back of the dial.  When I unscrewed the dial, a two inch metal plate fell as seen in the third photo. I have no idea where that's supposed to be connected.  There was no screw holding it in place anywhere.

[ravingred]

Here is a better photo.  I removed the plastic casing.

[Dennis Markham]

Ravingred, that is a later dial.  As you can see it is a 9C and is dated November of 1967.  The -60 you see is a color code that translates to Ivory.  So your phone was refurbished somewhere along the line.  That dial originally was on an Ivory phone.  Just a side note.

The piece that fell I believe is just a spacer that fits on the vertical bracket that holds the dial.  Look closely and see if there is on on the other side, or if you can see how it will fit along side the dial when you re-attach it.  It was probably held on with the screw that you loosened to get the dial off.  It was sandwiched between the vertical bracket and the dial.

Now as far as your dial not dialing.  Now that you can see the back side of it, do you see any gears that appear to be jammed?  The dial that I recently repaired was an older, 7 series dial.  None of the gears on the #7 dials are plastic.  See if you can tap around on the gears.  It may just be a matter of them being meshed together.

The 9C dial isn't really made to be disassembled like the 7 series dials were.

[Dennis Markham]

Looking at your photos again, I can't tell a lot.  On the last photo, does the orange piece of plastic appear to be jammed against the dial contact?  The photo is a little blurry and I can't tell from the direct angle.  See if that is hung up.

[ravingred]

The gears are all turning smoothly.  The plastic orange piece is resting between a lifted groove of the gear it rests on and the thin metal foot, it separates the connection when I turn the dial. Aha!!!! That did it!!! I just played around with the plastic orange piece and now it's dialing.  I'm not sure where that piece is supposed to rest because it's now in the same position as when I started, but it's working now.  Somehow it just needed a little attention though it didn't change anything from the look of it as far as I could tell.

Thank you, you're a genius!!! A rotary phone guru ; )

[ravingred]

Next question, how can I get the plastic dial piece off (with breaking it) to clean underneath it & change the phone number?

[Dennis Markham]

Glad that worked for you.  I thought that orange piece looked like it may be hanging up on the dial contacts.  Make sure it dials out appropriately.  It may need a minor adjustment but I think all it does it keep the contacts apart when the dial is at rest or may assist with the opening/closing of the points during the return.

Look here to remove the finger wheel.  

http://www.porticus.org/bell/telephones-technical_dials-rotary.html

Scroll down to the Plastic Finger Wheel section.

There are many here who could have helped you with that issue.  I just happened to be the first to respond.  I'm glad it was that simple.

[Dan]

Ravingred, welcome to our forum. There are many happy and knowledgable people (like Dennis) who can help you. When you want to get your dial card replaced, there are sites that you can copy cards from and insert your home # .

[Dennis Markham]

Ravingred, looking at your photos again of your dial mounting bracket, you have one of the older 3-point mounts.  On the bottom of your phone there is probably a piece of paper with a date on it covering the original date.  It appears as though it had some refurbishing as I mentioned before.  The feet were replaced as were the dial and probably the plastics as well.  I just wondered if you were able to replace that spacer?  Those spacers were probably needed to mount that late dial (1967) on a bracket that was made for a phone originally built in the early 50's.

[bwanna]

welcome to the forum ravingred. you are in the right place for good technical advice, explained in a matter us rookies can understand.

thanks for starting another informative thread.
thank you dennis, for sharing your expertise.

[foots]

Ravingred, check out this post. Scroll down near the bottom and you should see a dial card that Bingster provided a picture of. I'm guessing that this is what you'll need for your dial. 
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=1539.0

[mienaichizu]

Welcome to the forum Ravingred! You're in the right place to ask for regarding rotary telephone repair. Lots of people here are knowledgeable in repairing rotary telephones