Connecting 3 wire phone

[adssteve]

Hi all!

I just bought a 1940ish Rotary Phone.  It has 3 wires--Red, White and Black.  The phone jack has 4 wires--Red, Black, Green and White/Yellow.  I have tried every combination (I think) and have not gotten it work.  Anyone know the correct combination? 

Note...I don't neccessarily need it to dial out or even ring--I would just like to use it as an extension. 

Any suggestions?

Thanks

[Phonesrfun]

What brand of telephone is it, and are you located in the US or somewhere else?

US phones usually have red, green, and yellow, so if you can tell us what make the phone is, maybe we can help.

[HarrySmith]

Some pictures of the phone and/or the wiring would be helpful. You only need 2 wires to make a phone work.

[AE_Collector]

Old AE cords were white/black/red. White and Black are the two line wires with red being the ringer return (ground) lead. To connect the ringer across the line put the red with the white line lead.

As for the phone jack it is just the green and red that you need. So hook the phones red and white leads to the jacks green lead AND the phones black lead to the jacks red lead. That should give you dial tone, the ability to dial at and transmit/receive. Then you just need to see if the ringer works or not.

This is assuming that it is an AE phone such as a model 40.

Terry

[adssteve]

Hello all!
Thanks to evryone for their response. 

AE...you were right!  Red and white to Green; Black to Red!  Bingo! Dial tone! I can dial out!  The only issue...the phone doesn't ring.  Any suggestions? 

It is a Western Electric.  Has patent dates 1939 on the receiver.  Not sure of model number. 

Thanks everyone again for your responses.

Steve

[adssteve]

Here is one more picture.  Thanks again.

[Phonesrfun]

If you can post a picture of the inside of the phone showing the connections to the 101A induction coil and the little square terminal pad to the side of the coil, we can cut to the chase and tell you exactly what to do.  Otherwise we can be here for days saying "thry this, and try that"...

Works better with a picture.

[HarrySmith]

You have a Western Electric 302. A very nice looking one with a nice staright rubber handset cord. It will be a simple matter to get it working once you open it up and get some pictures. You will also find dates inside.

[LarryInMichigan]

Actually, the handset is a Northern Electric (Western Electric's Canadian cousin) F1, and the rest of the phone may very well be as well.  It's the same as a WE 302 though.

Larry