Western Electric 302

[Thomas]

Hello,
Back in Feb. 2015 we bought a Western Electric 302 desk phone. It's from 10-15-53. At that time two members helped me troubleshoot it and get it working they were unbeldi and Poplar1. Well the phones been working great since then but just today my wife picked up the receiver and there was no dial tone. We called the phone from our iPhone and it rang, but I could not hear my wife although she could hear me. I then called the iPhone with the 302 and the iPhone rang. My wife could hear me talking but again I could not hear her. So, with this information do you think it is just the receiver in the handset? Is there some way to test it to see if it is gone? I don't have any kind of electrical stuff, testers or whatever so that isn't something I can use to test, not sure if there is another way or maybe what I've told you is simply that the receiver has given up the ghost! The receiver is not wired to the handset it just sits in there and the cap holds it in. I did clean off the connections thinking it was dirty but to no avail. Thanks for the help, Tom

[AL_as_needed]

Hey Thomas, usually the elements in the handset very rarely develop an issue that causes them to totally fail. One thing i would check is the little tabs that make the connection under the caps. I have had those loosen / break on me once.

Other thing to check is the hookswitch and make sure the contacts are opening and closing as they should.

[poplar1]

Before cleaning or adjusting the White/Brown-Blue dial contact springs or the Green/Brown-Blue springs on any 302 or 354, you can try moving the white handset cord conductor from W on the dial to GN on the 101A induction coil. This bypasses both the dial contacts for the receiver and the switch hook receiver conttacts.  Not too late to try moving the white wire from W to GN now.

The white conductor in the handset may be open, although usually you would have heard fading in and out on the receiver unit when moving the cord around -- rather than having sudden loss of receiver volume.

Since you can be heard, but can't hear, that means the black and red handset cord conductors are still good.

Do you still have the 354? You could try first swapping the HA1 receiver units of the 302 and 354 to see whether the problem follows the receiver unit, or if both receiver units are OK.

If the handset cord white conductor is in fact open (no continuity end to end), you will probably need a new handset cord.

[Thomas]

AL, those contacts under the receiver are intact and look ok, so I'm good there, thanks.

poplar1,
I'm sorry but I'm not very familiar with technical the lingo! The "white handset cord conductor" are you referring to the white WIRE in the handset cord?

 What do you mean when you say it may be "open"?

The 354 wall phone's receiver is wired to the unit, the 302's is loose in the handset held in by the handset cap. Is that what you meant by swapping the HA1 receiver to see if it works in the 302? I will try moving the white "wire"? from W to GN
I'll let you know what happens! Thanks

[AL_as_needed]

You'll get the lingo soon enough, it come with the territory 

I believe what Poplar1 is saying, is to test the white wire (yes, the one in the handset cord) to make sure it is not physically broken or "open" inside the insulated handset cord.

[Thomas]

AL, got it! I just removed the white wire from it's screw marked W, and touched it one at a time to the two GN terminals and nothing happens. Then, thinking maybe the white wire from transmitter to receiver in the handset was no good,I replaced it with a short piece of wire up through the handle and nothing happened, no dial tone. Would the next test be to bypass the white wire from phone to the handset and see if I get a dial tone?

[Thomas]

Well I just bypassed the white wire from receiver to terminal marked W in phone, removing original white wire and making sure that didn't contact any other terminals and nothing happens. I also took the bypass wire off W terminal and touched it to GN terminals as poplar1 suggested and nothing happened. Does that mean the white wire from phone to handset is ok? With all that said am I right in assuming the actual receiver is dead?

[poplar1]

Sorry, I meant to say move the white wire from W on dial to GN on the top right terminal on the induction coil near the ringer. The next step would be to connect a single piece of wire from W terminal inside the handset to GN terminal on the induction coil to substitute for a possibly defective handset cord.

Didn't realize that your 354 apparently has a G1 handset.

"Open" means no continuity, that is, no path from the handset to the phone.

[Thomas]

poplar1 & AL,

It's fixed!! I don't really know what happened but I think one of the white wires in the handset under the transmitter slipped out from under the terminal screw. There are two white's there, one from the phone and one going to the receiver. when I bypassed the white wire from the transmitter to the receiver to test it, I don't remember seeing two white wires. They have thin brass terminals, as I'm sure you know, and it must have slipped down under all the wires there and I didn't see it until I started putting it all back together. A few days ago I took the phone off the table it's on to clean it and the handset fell on the floor. I think that's when it must have come loose. I was worried there for a while, so glad it was an easy fix. Thanks so much for all the help. I did learn some things though so the time wasn't such a waste. Thanks again both of you. Tom

[MMikeJBenN27]

He more likely has an F4 handset on his 354.  The F4 looks like like other F handsets, but uses the same receiver capsule as the G handsets, often the same transmitter as well.

Mike