WE 302 Identification & Rewiring

[HarrySmith]

I have removed the cover on some dials while still in the phone but I do not recall which dials. There are several methods to remove a "stuck" dial, as explained in Alex's post about the shrunken housing. I usually just tap the back of the dial with a screwdriver handle and it drops out. Your gasket appears to be in good condition but that can hold the dial in also which would require some careful work maybe with a hooked pick type tool to work around it to loosen. Just a couple of things I have tried, sure there are many more methods.

[Alex G. Bell]

I have removed the cover on some dials while still in the phone but I do not recall which dials. There are several methods to remove a "stuck" dial, as explained in Alex's post about the shrunken housing. I usually just tap the back of the dial with a screwdriver handle and it drops out. Your gasket appears to be in good condition but that can hold the dial in also which would require some careful work maybe with a hooked pick type tool to work around it to loosen. Just a couple of things I have tried, sure there are many more methods.

The only WECo dial which has a cover is a #6 so that kind of narrows the possible types.  Later AE dials had covers but I don't think any of them were usable in a set requiring a 3" dial.

[TelePlay]

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=18154.msg186991#msg186991

[Alex G. Bell]

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=18154.msg186991#msg186991

Perhaps someone should add the almost all plastic 6_A and 9_A dials.  "_" represents the original letter suffix, so the 6AA is the plastic version of the 6A, the 6EA is the plastic version of the 6E.  Construction is quite different.

But as I said, the #6A (and 6AA) are the only ones with a cover that would work on a 302 and the 6AA is not likely to show up on one because they were way too recent.

[Alex G. Bell]

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=18154.msg186991#msg186991

Perhaps someone should add the almost all plastic 6_A and 9_A dials.  "_" represents the original letter suffix, so the 6AA is the plastic version of the 6A, the 6EA is the plastic version of the 6E.  Construction is quite different.

But as I said, the #6A (and 6AA) are the only ones with a cover that would work on a 302 and the 6AA is not likely to show up on one because they were way too recent.

[TelePlay]

Perhaps someone should add the almost all plastic 6_A and 9_A dials.  "_" represents the original letter suffix, so the 6AA is the plastic version of the 6A, the 6EA is the plastic version of the 6E.  Construction is quite different.

But as I said, the #6A (and 6AA) are the only ones with a cover that would work on a 302 and the 6AA is not likely to show up on one because they were way too recent.

I don't have the images or the dials to photograph. The ones posted were grabbed off of eBay and intended to be the approximate, general configuration of the #'d dial, not each type of #'d dial so new that members would be able to compare dials and have some idea of what they "might" have when receiving a phone and first looking at a dial.

If anyone has images of any or all "missing" dials so noted, I will gladly add them to the original dial image topic to provide a more detailed identification for new members and any member who wants a quick comparison or ID of about what they might have in their hand.

Since the original intent was to show terminals, pile ups, covers and 500 dial general types, I did not include images of the dial front both assembled and stripped down to the point of number plate removal, something that would be very helpful if an image of a dial were quickly needed to show another member the detail being discussed in a topic reply.

The more information added in image in place for quick reference, the better the use of this forum will be for people needing to see when a topic or reply is posted without any pictures.

If anyone wants to create similar topics in the Telephone Component Identification board of any other phone parts that have the same function but vary due to improvements going forward (ringers from LB phones to the latest version of the 500, for example) in the board, feel free to do so. Anyone can create and update that type of informative images.

Always good to document and share such information accessible to new members just getting into the hobby and having neither the industry experience or the experience of collecting and restoring phones for many years nor the parts bins or phones with the part(s) to open and photograph to support text. Newer members find such identification topic helpful, such as where one should oil a #6x dial (missing from the forum, TTBOMK).

[Alex G. Bell]

Pretty sure I have examples of 6AA and/or 6EA and probably 9CA.  I'll look for and take photos as time permits. 

The NE version of the #9 dial is also different.  Number plate interchangeability between #7, 9, 9_A and the NE version is also complex.  There are plates that fit 7 only, both 7 & 9 but not 9_A, maybe 9 only as well and the NE plate is yet different too.   At one point I think I compiled photos of the plate differences and annotated them to ID what they fit.  Will look around for that too.

[mblythe]

Success! I was able to remove the dial, remove the dust cover, clean and oil the appropriate moving parts, and re-assemble it all. Now, the dial is smooth as silk and dials out just fine. Thanks to the earlier re-wiring and new capacitor, the bell rings and everything works as it should.

Thank you so much to all of you, for generously sharing your knowledge and time. It can be a steep climb to adopt a new hobby, but communities like this make it worth the effort.

[TelePlay]

Good news. Glad it turned out so well for you. And you learned a lot so the next 302 you have, you'll know exactly what to do. It's that first time in a phone that's the longest.

And, you got a lot of good help from other members which speeds up the learning curve.

[mblythe]

Absolutely! Tomorrow, with a rested mind, I'll assemble all this help into some cohesive notes I can refer to in the future. Much easier than trying to find it all in scattered forum threads again.