WE 500 Dial Speed Regulation

[BakeliteBear]

Can anyone please advise me regarding the servicing of this dial?

I should say that I am based in the UK and am very used to servicing UK GPO No.10/12 dials (in the past 12 months I have done a little short of 100 of these dials) and these are easily stripped to individual components; I have not had as much luck with this dial!

I have worked out how to get down to the basic unit (i.e. away from the dial face and with the wire spring removed) but that's as far as I could get. Since the internal structure seems to be riveted, I guess that's as far as most folk can get. So my question is really about setting exact dial speeds. Can it be done?

I have spot lubricated all the pivots I can get to (some on the bottom plate have defeated me), but the only thing that has made a real difference is spraying the governor unit with a switch cleaner. Now it is too fast, but will hopefully slow down when this solvent has finally evaporated.

Are there any tricks I have missed, and how do you folk set precise speeds? On a UK dial I can usually set the speed to between 9.6 and 10.4 pps.

[rdelius]

There is a forked tool that can be used to bend the gov spring  but these were almost disposable ringers if they needed major repairs.I used to repair lots of British #10 dials but i had to shorten broken mainsprings or rob them out of other dials.Porcelain number disks were another problem
Robby

[Dan/Panther]

Bakelite;
The dial should take 1 second to complete a cycle. If it doesn't a simple cleaning usually works.
Well it's not really simple but a cleaning will usually correct a slow dial., people use everything from WD-40 (which most do not recommend) to ultrasonic cleaners, to warm water and dish soap. Any way you chooser, a thorough drying out, and follow up lube, of none gumming oil is required.
D/P

[BakeliteBear]

Thanks for your replies. At least I don't seem to be missing anything obvious.

There is a forked tool that can be used to bend the gov spring  but these were almost disposable ringers if they needed major repairs.

Robbie, can you tell me a bit more about the forked tool and how it works?

I used to repair lots of British #10 dials but i had to shorten broken mainsprings or rob them out of other dials.Porcelain number disks were another problem

Mainsprings are a problem, but at least they are the same design for all GPO dials so they can be robbed from the later less desirable ones.

The enamel dials faces are a bit of a problem, especially getting them out, but we have a fantastic chap here in the UK who does excellent plastic reproductions of the numeric and alphanumeric number plates.

[rdelius]

I would make sure everything has been properly cleaned and oiled before adjusting. The Tool is about 1/8 dia or so with a slot in the end. Think of a screwdriver but backwards. You can put the slot over the governor spring and give it a mild kink to loosen or tighten it.
These dials were not field repairable. I will look for a diagram.
Robby

[Wallphone]

Does the tool look like the 363 spring adjuster in the the BSP that Paul just posted about buzzers?
> http://www.telephonecollectors.org/DocumentLibrary/BSPs/501Division/501-120-100-i10-Reference-Buzzers-and-Bells.pdf <
The tool is on page 11.
Dougpav

[BakeliteBear]

These dials were not field repairable.
Robby

So presumably engineers had a bag full of new dials??

Thanks very much for the information. This dial seems a bit of a pain to work on! I can see how the tool would work, but not so clear how/where I can get or make one. The slot must be pretty narrow and cutting a piece of, say, silver steel with a hacksaw would give quite a wide slot. Has anyone got a cool way to fashion this tool, or are they readily available somewhere?

Thanks again
Chris

PS. Do the markings on the dial make it a Type 50G made in Aug 1992

[rdelius]

That spring adjuster is what i was trying to describe
Robby

[paul-f]

Dial speed adjustment for #5 dials is on pages 11 and 12 here:
  http://www.telephonecollectors.org/DocumentLibrary/BSPs/501Division/501-162-100.pdf

[McHeath]

PS. Do the markings on the dial make it a Type 50G made in Aug 1992

Yep.  It's basically ITT's clone of Western Electrics number 9 dial.  It's a very late model job, and was not really meant to strip down much for repairs.  (In fact I've never seen one of that era that needed anything done to it, other than perhaps a mild cleaning)  If it's too fast and you sprayed a lube into the spring assembly try blowing some compressed air in there to clear it out. 

Just for info ITT turned into Cortelco and continued making this dial in the US until 2006, it still had the ITT logo on the gear till the end of production.  I have a Cortelco model 500 with this dial from July of 2003, it's a nice unit and the dial is very quiet compared to the old time models. 

[BakeliteBear]

Thanks to everyone who has replied, you have all been very helpful.

Chris