Princess 8A Dial misaligned

[Dan/Panther]

When completed I plan to give this to my Mom on her 82nd birthday this july 6th.
D/P
It's just like the one my Dad got for her when they first came out.

[bingster]

When I turn the dial from "0" to the finger stop slowly, I feel slight hesitations at what would be each click of the dial contacts. I don't feel this with other modern dials, is this common on the Princess dial ?
It is very smooth and quiet on the return, I just feel the slight hesitations upon dialing ?
D/P

I just ran into this problem.  I had a Princess arrive today, so naturally, I had it in pieces within ten minutes.  I cleaned everything and put it all back together, and the dial had these same "bumps" when turning.  I took the fingerwheel and plastic parts back off the dial, and after a little study, I figured out what my problem was.

The bottom of the spring has a leg with a little hook at the end that fits in a hole, and the leg then extends to the right, and BEHIND a little metal stop.  When I put my dial back together, the bottom leg of the spring was sitting partially on top of the stop, causing a metal part above to brush it as it turned.  I pushed the bottom leg of the spring backward, to rest behind that stop, and the dial then worked flawlessly.

Does it sound like that may be your problem, too?

[Dan/Panther]

Bingster;

Sorry I didn't respond to your post sooner, but I didn't see it until today, 2 weeks later. Do posts get bumped to the top on this forum. Sometimes
I miss responses because they are too far down the list.

Yes what you describe is exactly what I'm experiencing, but I don't see where anything is rubbing. Can you post a photo ?
This is the first dial I've ever cleaned, that didn't benefit from the cleaning.
Do all of these gems have the dial like described above ? These phones, and correct me if I'm wrong, were designed with the lady of the house in mind, yet it has the roughest feeling dial in the forward direction, it returns very easily and very quiet, but I'm sure the sensitive fingers of a lady would notice the dial is not as smooth as a 500.

D/P

[bingster]

Hey Dan,  here are a few pictures.  It's really difficult to show the area I'm talking about with the spring in place in the dial, but if you peek down in yours, you'll see what I'm showing.  The first two pics are natural pics, showing the right and wrong way I had my spring.  The second two are the same pics that I've added color to for clarity to show the spring (in red) and the stop (in blue).

If your spring isn't resting behind the stop, just take a small screwdriver and push it off the stop toward the back, and push it down to the bottom to keep it there.  Have you lubricated the dial?  After lubricating mine, It's probably the smoothest, quietest Western Electric dial in my whole collection.

[Dennis Markham]

Nice job Bing!  Now I'm going to go check my Princess dials.  Nice illustrations, Thanks.

[Dan/Panther]

Bingster;
I've added a couple photos myself with questions.
In photo one you see the spring (B)  is in the groove (A).
In Photo two it's not, should the spring be in both grooves, one, or neither ?
Also 120 degrees from each groove is one  more spot where it appears the spring would clip into, should the sping be in that area or not ? Being they are 120 Degrees apart, it seems it would evenly space the spring.
D/P

[Dan/Panther]

By putting the spring in all 3 spots, it smoothed the dial out tremendously.
D/P

[bingster]

I'll have to check mine, Dan.  I don't think my spring is in place in all three positions, but it sure looks like it should be, given the way they step down.

[bingster]

After looking at mine, the top of the spring is routed through both "A" grooves, and doesn't go around any other "arm" coming off the center.  Looking down directly from the top, it looks like the other non-"A" arms would pull the spring too far out of it's natural path, if the spring were routed outside them.  It appears to me that the other three arms are there only to provide a stable "shelf" for the fingerwheel to sit on.

[Dan/Panther]

On your last photo right between 9 and 10, if you look under the flange you will see a step where the spring could be clipped onto. It happens to be 120 degrees from either of the other grooves. That would support the spring at 3 points. By doing this I fixed the major amount of the jerking I felt.
I'd like to add that the third spot is exactly the same distance from the center as the other two. It's not as pronounced as the two 'A's', it's more or less justa step that looks to be made to acommodate the spring. I agree the 3 flanges are just for support.

D/P 

[bingster]

I don't think you should feel any jerking.  Mine's as smooth as silk.  Is the bottom arm of the spring behind the stop, too?

[Dan/Panther]

Mine is very smooth while dialing 1 through 6,  however 7-0 still a very slight unsmooth feeling. Hardly noticeable now that I've corrected the spring.
I seem to remember someone saying the back cover for the princess dial was riveted in place. Mine has two clips that hold it on, when I removed the back cover it was full of dust.

Mine is working very good now, thanks for the headsup on the spring. It seems the more I dial it the smoother it's getting. Maybe the spring needs to reseat itself.
D/P

[bingster]

The dials may have changed over the years, but my cover is like yours and is held on by the little built-in clips.

[Dan/Panther]

Bingster;
Checlk this and let me know your opinion.
D/P

[bingster]

I hadn't noticed that before.  But yep, mine's routed around the outside of that step.