WE 5302 ring sounds like a machine gun

[elmwood]

CLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKding!  CLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKding!  CLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKding! 

I tried adjusting a tension spring in the ringer, but it didn't see to do much.  Any reason why this phone has such a gawd-awful ring?

[Dennis Markham]

Have you tried adjusting your gongs?  If you loosen the gongs and rotate them you'll notice that they move toward and away from the clapper.  Rotate first the left side then try it with the right.  On a 500 only one of the gongs has an "eccentric" hole which allows the gong to rotate on an oblong path.  On a 302 ringer I can't remember if they both are eccentric.  So try the left first.  Do trial and error.  Rotate it off the clapper a bit, ring the phone while holding the opposite gong to stifle it, and see how it sounds.  With some tweaking you may be able to improve the ringer.

Secondly if the ringer is loose on it's mounting that can cause the noise you're hearing too.  I think these type of ringers tend to have that machine-gun sound to them.  I have replaced the cushioned material on the ringer mounting bracket using thick rubber O-rings from the hardware store.  (Photo attached).

[LarryInMichigan]

Other things to check are if anything, such as a wire, is touching the gongs, or if the clapper arm is bent.

Larry

[Phonesrfun]

Also check the position of the gongs. 

On the 302, the gong mounting holes were slightly off center, or eccentric.  This is how the loudness of the ring was adjusted out in the feild.  Usually, if the surface of the gong was close to the clapper, the softer the ring.  Farther out, and you get a louder ring.  If the gongs are too far away, the clapper won't even hit the gong, but you would get the clapping sound of the clapper just flailing back and forth hitting nothing.

As was said before, anything such as wires or other items that touch the gongs will dampen the ringing sound too.

[elmwood]

Thanks for the replies!  Let me try some of those ideas out, and see what happens.