Anyone got a dead phone?

[McHeath]

I'm wondering if anyone has a dead phone.  Not one of these newer cordless or other jobs made in the last 25 years, but a Western Electric or equivalent, from the peak years of manufacture.  Say the 302 era to the early 80's 500 or 2500, right to the end of the Bell System. 

I've never encountered a dead or failed phone of this time period.  Certainly some failed, maybe they are all in the landfills now, but all the ones I find, no matter how dirty or ugly, always work when plugged in. 

Got a DOA one?  What's it's story?

[Dan]

I thought I had one (500 WE) , but the handset had a tear in the wire after the brass strain relief. It wouldn't ring because it also had a tear in the wall cord. I lot of sweat went into figuring it out.

Nope I haven't had one yet either.

[mienaichizu]

I recently acquired a WE 500 4-65 (all matching numbers) its not ringing. I checked the wiring and all seems to be in place but it still doesn't work.

[BDM]

Once, a bad network coil in a 534 subset. It didn't look or smell burnt like it took a static lightning hit. It simply didn't work. I never bothered to ohm it out. I just swapped it for a parts coil I already had, all was good.

I have a 302 who's ringer is weak. I haven't looked into why yet. But it barely rings. Could be the condenser for all I know.

[McHeath]

My mom's cordless is dying, it seems, after talking with her tonight.  It's doing weird stuff and dropping calls among other problems.  Put a new battery in it last Fall, but hey it's over two years old and you know how this stuff is made today.

Meanwhile her 2554 wall phone from 77' keeps on trucking.

I've found a lot of ringer problems in my old phones, but eventually they all worked again. 

[Dennis Markham]

I have two Western Electric phones, one a 554 and the other a 500 that both work but each has a problem that I cannot correct.  I suspect a problem in the network.  It is rare but it does happen.

The 500 base is from '57 and has perfect leather feet.  I can't get rid of static while using the phone.  I have replaced everything...dial cords, ringer, everything. I've isolated to the network.  Short of drilling out the rivets and putting in a new network block it's not one I can use.  But I have it tagged and sitting on a shelf just in case I want to tinker with it again.  About every 6-8 months I pull it out and go through all my trouble-shooting again only to have the same conclusion---bad network.

The 554 has a similar issue.  But I hang on to it nonetheless.

These phones are basically bullet-proof.  One collector wrote that they all work...the ones that don't are just not wired correctly.

[benhutcherson]

I have never encountered one that didn't work either, but then I don't have the vast experience that Dennis and some of the others do.

Dennis,

If I'm not mistaken, the '57 set should have a black-topped network with some of the terminals soldered on. Have you possibly tried reflowing the solder on all of these terminals? You could have a cold or fractured solder joint that's giving intermittent contact. If either is the case, reflowing would fix it.

[Dennis Markham]

Ben, that's not a bad idea.  In the case of the wall phone, I haven't messed with it since early on in my "career" of tinkering with these phones.  I should probably pull it out and check things out.  I will definitely look at the soldered connections.  Thanks for that idea.

[BDM]

Dennis, what Ben sates is very possible. We run into that issue with radios enough.

[McHeath]

That problem of solder needing to be reflowed happens in computers as well, I had an early Macintosh Powerbook that I had to pull the motherboard out every so often and reflow the solder on the power connectors.  It looked fine, but would stop making connection.

So far no one has a truly dead old phone.  Funny eh?  Here we are the "Green Era" and yet all out phones are disposable and will be trashed in a few years, while the Waste Era made phones that, like roaches, are unkillable. 

[HobieSport]

Here we are the "Green Era" and yet all out phones are disposable and will be trashed in a few years, while the Waste Era made phones that, like roaches, are unkillable. 

[Dan/Panther]

Even my 1907 WE317-E worked after I cleaned up some wiring problems. Not original wire, but wires someone else had relaced and did a bad job of it.
I think that's why I like phones so much, It seems no matter how bad they look you can get them to work. In my radios I find no matter how good they look I can't get them to work..
D/P

[McHeath]

I think that's why I like phones so much, It seems no matter how bad they look you can get them to work. In my radios I find no matter how good they look I can't get them to work..

That's pretty funny!  I too have discovered that the durn old phones seem to always work and that is pretty satisfying. 

[rp2813]

I'll chime in (!) and add that the only "dead" phones I've ever dealt with had issues with handset or mounting cords and/or related connections. 

Dennis, I presume you have pulled everything out of that '57 phone that's removable and then connected it all up to a base with a known good network.  If so, then it sounds like the the soldering suggestion may be the solution.  Let us know if it fixes things.

Ralph

[Dennis Markham]

Ralph, I don't remember if I tried the parts from the phone on a different chassis, but I think I did.  There are a few things I have learned along the way that I will try before getting out the soldering iron.  The problem right now is I have other things that need to be done before that...maybe I'll take a detour and spend some time on it.  Thanks for the suggestion.  I will revisit this when I get a chance to pull it out.