Wall mounting plate question

[mst269]

Hello folks, my name is Richard and I've just joined, although I've been a reader for most of a year now.  I have a question about the plates used to mount modular wall phones.

I have a few AE phones with a "GTE PLUG" modular connector on the back, which is longer than the WE type.  This long plug is too deep to fit into the usual wall mounting plate and still have the mounting rivets fit into the phone.  I'd like to find a few of these wall plates.  Searching the web has turned up nothing, at least using the search terms I can think of.  I know these things are hanging in people's houses, why are they so hard to find?

(I don't really want to change the GTE PLUG connector out for a shorter WE-style one; mainly because I need to do it for several phones, but also to keep the phones as they are.)

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Richard

[AE_Collector]

Hi Richard:

Welcome to the forum!

I have never tried an AE phone on the WECo type plates but have to admit I have wondered if they would fit or not. AE phones have keyed slots in the back to allow for the two different spacings of rivets/studs on the plates but the WECo type modular wallphones have a jack in the back that is more recessed into the phones back plate than the AE phones.

In later years AE switched away from the sliding plug in the back and went to a 6" cord instead. Maybe the problem you mention is part of the reason they made this change.

AE's stud spacing is identical to the standard screw spacing on electrical boxes (in North America). Here we used the regular plastic flush wall jacks for AE wall phones but we had little aluminum studs (I called them Bobbins) that we put the jack mounting screw through before mounting the plate to the box, mudring or even plastic drywall anchors.

AE phones hung on the "Bobbins" real well and so did Northern Electric phones but the NECo phones we used were the newer phones such as Harmony & Solo. They also used a 6" cord rather than having a built in sliding plug.

Terry

[mst269]

Hello Terry, I need to get together my AE phones and start sending you some information....

I have several AE phones that fall into this mounting-plate situation, but I have one particular TC Starlite in mind as I write this.  It doesn't have the GTE PLUG connector, but it has the sliding mounting for one, and the holes to accept the rivets, and a modular jack with 6" cord.  It also can't go on a WE-style plate, because the PC board inside the phone won't clear the jack sticking out of the plate- so there goes that idea! 

If the bobbins were on the head-ends of the screws, what did the screws hold up?  Or in other words, where was the jack and how did it mount?  I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it.

Thanks,
Richard

[AE_Collector]

If the bobbins were on the head-ends of the screws, what did the screws hold up?  Or in other words, where was the jack and how did it mount?  I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it.

The bobbins were as you said, right beneath the screw head and the back end of the bobbin (like a spacer or funny washer really) pressed against the plastic jack/plate. So when the screws were tightened everything stayed nice and snug against the wall. Then the AE wall phones with the keyed slots in the plastic backplate would hang on the bobbins. You didn't mention the locking bar wit hyour 192 Starlite phone. If it has the keyed slots AND is a wall phone it should have a chromed flat metal bar sticking out of the side of the phone that locks the phone onto the bobins. I say "If it is a WALL Phone" becasue later 182 Starlite desk phones used the same keyed plastic base plate as the Starlite wall phones. Consequently, many AE desk phones of the Starlite and Styleline variety get listed on ebaY as being wall phones or desk OR wallphones even though they are obviously only a desk phone. Sellers notice the keyed slots so list it as being a wall phone as well!

I'll take a picture of the screw / jack / Bobbin set up and post it here soon.

Terry

[mst269]

Hello again Terry-

Yeah, they're certainly wall phones.  I have wall and desk Starlites, and the wall ones do have the locking bar.  I have, if I remember correctly, 3 wall and 2 desk.  For whatever reason, the wall ones are all late, and the desk ones are earlier- here's what I have:

-desk rotary, dated 6-69, white, with the electroluminescent plate;
-wall rotary, dated 10-83, beige, with GTE PLUG on the back;
-desk TC, dated 4-73, avocado;
-wall TC, not dated that I can see, white, with modular jack and 6" cord;
-wall rotary, dated 5-83, white, with WE-style plug and adapter ring on the back.

I'll be quite interested in the picture.  I want to say that somewhere I've seen these bobbins, but living solidly in Illinois Bell territory, AE phones are not common here, even so close to where they were made.

Thanks,
Richard

[AE_Collector]

I'll be quite interested in the picture.  I want to say that somewhere I've seen these bobbins, but living solidly in Illinois Bell territory, AE phones are not common here, even so close to where they were made.

Hi Richard:

I never really determined for certain if the bobbins were a GTE/AE item or not. I am in AE territory or at least I was, but I am in Canada. BC Telephone was 50.1% owned by GTE until about 2000 when their ownership was reduced to something like 27%. Then a couple of years later GTE sold off the rest of their shares in BC Tel, now Telus.

We used a lot of AE equipment but not every AE item was manufactured in Canada as well as the USA so we bought a lot of material from Northern Electric/Northern Telecom as well. We had been GTE's largest single operating company outside of the USA so we had a lot of resources to make and repair our own equipment. I always wondered if we made the bobbins in our shops but I suspect that they were made by or for AE.

I do have a "real good supply of them" so I suspect that I can supply you enough for your needs as long as you have the wall jack plates that you need. Most plastic jack plates that directly screw onto a box or mud ring are ideal.

Terry

[mst269]

I do have a "real good supply of them" so I suspect that I can supply you enough for your needs as long as you have the wall jack plates that you need. Most plastic jack plates that directly screw onto a box or mud ring are ideal.

Terry

It was your last sentence that has instantly cleared this all up for me.  I know what I'm looking for now!  I had in my mind something like a jack that went inside the box and was screwed across it like a duplex electrical outlet, but it's just a standard face plate with extended screw heads, basically.  I will get back to you about those bobbins- let me see what I'd need.

Thanks a million,
Richard

[AE_Collector]

but it's just a standard face plate with extended screw heads, basically.  

Exactly!

Terry