I bought a 302 with a 1952 handset cord and the wires are crumbling and I was wondering if you can pull out the old wires and run new ones through it I heard some one on here did it on a straight handset cord for a 500.
Short answer is no. Best to find a replacement. I don't recall anyone ever pulling wires through on a 500 handset cord. I do remember Dan/Panther was able to re-color some wires in a cord that was not original to the phone. I also don't know that it would even be possible. On Neoprene cords, the neoprene jacket is molded to the wires during manufacturing. On a fabric cord, the fabric jacket is braided around the inner fabric or rubber coated wires.
If your phone has a straight or coiled fabric cord, oldphoneworks makes new replacement fabric cords. I believe they also have replacement neoprene coiled cords. They may have replacement neoprene cords too, but I have never looked.
Isn't there a way to stop the rubber (neoprene?) individual conductors insulation from crumbling? Nail polish remover to remelt it back together?
Terry
will it stop the static?
Quote from: Kennyc1955 on July 25, 2010, 07:33:22 PM
will it stop the static?
No, I thought you just had the crumbling conductor insulation syndrome...
Terry
it does
Quote from: Kennyc1955 on July 25, 2010, 08:03:47 PM
it does
So fixing the insulation on the conductors is not likely to fix a static problem. That is probably unrelated.
Someone on here will be able to confirm and provide more info but I think I heard that you can melt the remaining insulation with something like nail polish remover and it will restore the insulation so that it doesn't continue to disintegrate.
Terry
ok good the neoprene is in great shape but the wires are crumbling
the nail polish fixed the wires
I have pulled the wires out of a handset cord and run new ones through it. It was a 1959 dated straight cord and the insulation on the wires had degraded and shorted out the cord. So I figured why not give it a try, cut off the ends, and pulled! The wires came about three quarters of the way out and broke. I then gave up on it and tossed it, but my 17 year old son went and got it and somehow managed to get the remaining wires out of it. Then we fed new wires that we bought at a hardware store through it, crimped the ends and were back in business.
That said it's not a perfect fix, the new wires don't have any padding on them so the cord is easily compressible with your fingers. The new wires are also a bit stiffer than they ought to be. But it took a junk cord and made it usable.
Just goes to show you that I learn something every day.
Having said that, there is the problem of the stiffness. The hardware store wires would have been copper stranded wire, regardless of how thin, it would have still been stranded wire. Telephone cordage is copper tinsel that is twisted around a cotton string. This makes it so that a handset cord is highly flexible. That stuff is not sold in stores.
Had you "robbed" genuine tinsel wire from another cord, it too, would have broken under the stress of being pulled back through a jacket. Tinsel wire is very fragile when it comes to lateral stretching and pulling.
At the end of the day, however, my hat is off to you for "pulling"it off! Except for the stiffness, and the fact that it can be squeezed, I'll bet you can't tell the difference by looking.
Kenny, you can always try Heath's solution.
Cord repair like this is a dodgy proposition at best. The very best thing you could do (and it will make you much happier in the long run) is to save your pennies and order a new set of brown cloth cords from OPW. It'll make a world of difference in the phone's looks and performance.
McHeath
Can you find the topic for me?