WE 2554 Keypad Issue

[Larry]

I recently purchased a WE 2554 which looks brand new, inside and out.  Numbers on the back are 229 and 3-84.  Papers that came with it as well as sticker on back indicate the phone was refurbished in Feb 1986 by Rotelcom.  From all appearance, I would guess this phone has not been used since it was refurbished.

I need a wall phone and I hope I can use this one.  The problem is with the keypad.  Sometimes it works fine, but 90% of the time it does not work.  When I start to key in a telephone number, the first 3 or 4 keys sound correct.  Then as I key in the rest of the number the keys sound different.
When this happens, all the keys in the first vertical column have the same tone, the keys in the center vertical column have a different tone from the first vertical column of keys but the same tone on all keys center keys, and the column of keys on the right have a different tone, but the keys in that column have the same tone.  So, in effect, as you view the pad, there are only 3 tones.  Column 1, Column 2, Column 3

I have two trim line touch tone phones which I have connected to this wall outlet and both of the trim line phones operate properly.   I would welcome any suggestions.  I haven't tried anything at this point because I don't know what to try.  I read in someone else's post that keypad issues may be related to polarity, but I haven't tested that theory on this phone.

Larry

[Larry]

Additional info:  I did reverse the polarity, red and green, and when I key in numbers the dial tone does not stop sounding.  So, I guess we can eliminate polarity as being an issue.

Larry

[jsowers]

When you said it works sometimes, then that means your polarity is OK. If the polarity were wrong, it would never work.

What it sounds like to me is you have malfunctioning switches in your touchpad or some bad connections. The easy repair would be to just replace the touchpad. With it being a refurb, they could have used anything made from 1968 to 1986, so without a picture of it, we can only guess. In an older touchpad, each button activates two switches on different sides of the pad and maybe some of yours are dirty or misaligned? A piece of paper between the contacts is all you should use to clean them. You can check to see if they're closing when a button is pushed.

Repairing a touchpad is not anything for a beginner to tackle easily, so please be careful. Steve Hilsz repairs pre-1984 touchpads for a modest charge. He's available at 928-859-3595  or email him at jydsk@tds.net. Here is his website...

http://www.navysalvage.com/

Good luck getting your 2554 working and please let us know if you get it fixed.

[Larry]

Thanks Jonathan.  I've made contact with Steve.  I also have a North Electric Galion that needs dial work.  So, I'm glad to have this information.

Larry




Repairing a touchpad is not anything for a beginner to tackle easily, so please be careful. Steve Hilsz repairs pre-1984 touchpads for a modest charge. He's available at 928-859-3595  or email him at jydsk@tds.net. Here is his website...

http://www.navysalvage.com/

Good luck getting your 2554 working and please let us know if you get it fixed.
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[Larry]

I sent the 2554 wall phone to Steve and it is now working great !!  Also sent him a really nice North Electric Galion that had dial issue.  Glad to report that he repaired that one as well.  Thanks for the information on who to contact.

Larry