Cheap Japanese Phone - More Pictures Posted

[LarryInMichigan]

I discovered something this morning about this phone.  There is a design flaw which makes it very easy for the wires running to the dial to interfere with the operation of the ringer.  I couldn't understand why the ringer worked when the phone was opened but it didn't ring when the shell was on the phone.  I pushed the dial wires out of the way, and now the phone rings.

Larry 

[LM Ericsson]

I've had that same problem...

[LarryInMichigan]

I've had that same problem...

I wonder how many people in Japan missed phone calls during the 1960s-80s because the dial wires in their phones prevented the ringers from ringing. 

At least my phone rings now.  The sound is a bit flat.  The gongs do not produce a very nice ring.  When the phone arrived, the two ringer wires were disconnected from the circuit board, and their ends were wrapped with electrical tape.  Also, there were pieces of cloth tape stuck to the gongs where the clapper would have hit them.  Someone must have really disliked the ringing.  The ringer may have been disconnected to prevent the evil phone company from detecting the presence of the phone and adding more monthly charges to the bill.  When I was young, my mother had me install clandestine extension phones around the house, but I was warned by neighbors to disconnect the ringers so that the phone company wouldn't find out about them and charge us.

Larry

[twocvbloke]

Also, there were pieces of cloth tape stuck to the gongs where the clapper would have hit them.

My green GPO 746 had something similar, only it looked like someone had glued pieces of elastic band onto the bells where the clapper struck them, of course it was duly removed cos why have a bell-ringer when they can't ring properly... 

[LM Ericsson]

I know there is a special metal clip inside the phone to tuck the wires under.