Is there any way to make a dial have a more level spin?

[MaximRecoil]

On all of my rotary phones (three WE 554s and two WE 500s), the dials have up and down motion as they spin (some worse than others); which is caused by the finger wheel not being at a perfect right angle relative to the axis of the dial. On one of my phones, it is bad enough that the finger stop has to be adjusted all the way out so that the finger wheel doesn't rub against it during the high point of its spin. Is there any way to correct this?

Also, does the handset's receiver/speaker polarity matter; i.e., does it matter which screw terminals the green and white wires are connected to?

Edit: I fixed the issue on my worst dial. I removed the clear plastic finger wheel, and there are three "spokes" on the metal top of the dial mechanism that correspond to grooves in the finger wheel to hold it in place. I bent the spoke down slightly that was causing the finger wheel's high point, and now the finger wheel spins almost perfectly level. I was then able to adjust the finger stop down to its lowest position, and the finger wheel clears it fine now when spinning. The finger wheel is nicer to dial now too; very smooth.

Still wondering about the polarity of the handset speaker though.

[poplar1]

Since the receiver is AC and not DC, polarity doesn't matter. In fact, before modular handsets, both receiver leads in WE phones were white, so it obviously didn't matter which white lead went to which receiver terminal.

Caveat: I'm talking about properly wired phones and not phones that are "hot-wired" without a network.

[MaximRecoil]

Thanks for the information.

Do you know why they decided to use two different colors for the wires in the modular handsets?

I didn't even know that these phones could be "hotwired" to work without a network. Why would someone do that, and what are the downsides and/or benefits of doing that?

[poplar1]

I don't know why they did it, but in a way it was a return to an old color code, Green and white were the original colors used on the separate receivers for  Western Electic desk stand ("candlestick") and wall phones dating back to the 1910s or earlier.

In most (sidetone) WE non-dial desk stand phones,  which used a separate subset (bell box),  the green wire from the subset to the phone goes to the green receiver wire, the yellow wire goes to the transmitter, and the red wire goes through the hookswitch contacts to the connect to the other transmitter wire and white receiver wire.

The "green=receiver" idea carried over in the 302 (where GN on the induction coil goes through the hookswitch and BB/W contacts of the dial to the receiver) and the 500 (where GN terminal on the network is for one side of the receiver).

I don't want to start a war about hot-wiring because a lot of people selling/collecting phones seem to think it is perfectly OK to sell/collect phones without a network. In the case of desk stand (candlestick) phones and 202s, this means not having to bother with the separate subset or ringer box which contains the induction coil and capacitors (later combined together in the 500 into a potted network) as well as a ringer.  Besides the fact that a 202 or desk stand without the subset is only half of a phone, there are the following problems:

1. The user can experience acoustic shock (possible damage to eardrum) if they hang up the phone while the receiver is still near the ear.
2.  The receiver can eventually demagnetize because you are using Direct Current (DC) instead of AC.
3.  There can be transmission losses.
4.  There is no audible signal for incoming calls.

I once asked an antique dealer how you would know to answer the phone since he was selling a desk stand without the subset. His reply, "You don't." At least that was an honest answer.

I really don't understand why anyone would think a 202 or desk stand is a "complete phone" even though they know a wall phone contains a ringer and network or induction coil and capacitors.  Desk stand phones were an attempt to provide a convenient way to talk on the phone, at a desk for example,  without having to stand up to talk. They still required the other components that the wall phones had; if the bell box/subset contained a hand generator, then it had to be located where the person sitting at the desk could reach it, but if not then the subset could be located on the side of the desk or on the baseboard or even in another room such as a central hall where the ringer could best be heard. If batteries were part of the phone then they could be located in the basement rather than in the lower part of the wall phone, but they weren't left off the order just because the person wanted a desk phone rather than a wall phone.

[Phonesrfun]

Amen, David.  I have been harping that for a long time.

[MaximRecoil]

Very interesting and informative post. Thanks.

[MaximRecoil]

I made a video of my now level dial spinning. Unfortunately I didn't think to take a "before" video, but I'm sure everyone here already knows what an unlevel spinning dial looks like, since most of them are unlevel to one degree or another.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWrbDVdebdc

[cloyd]

Your youtube video wouldn't play.   
Could you post some pictures of the solution?  I have several finger wheels that do not spin in a level way.  I thought they were bent.  Maybe some of them are because they aren't all WE.
Thank you,
Tina

[poplar1]

Tina, I believe that MaximRecoil has left the building. He last logged in 6 March 2013.

[cloyd]

Oh.  OK, thanks for letting me know.

Hey!  New avatar, I like it!

Tina