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When I stripped back the insulation I found that the pairs were not twisted and the color code is completely different from anything I have seen. Is there an easy way to identify the live lines without stripping back each wire and going through the process of elimination?
I'll bet that the pairs are indeed twisted, otherwise it wouldn't work properly as a telephone cable. You probably have not exposed enough pairs to see the twists. Most telephone distribution cable is manufactured with very few twists per foot, to avoid adding unnecessary length (and therefore, more resistance and capacitance) to the pairs.


Do the wires have dots, stripes, etc? What are the color combinations that you see?

There are cables with odd-count, even-count, central office code, switchboard code, and other specialized codes. There are cables in which the pairs are all the same color.

We would love to see a photo of this non-standard cable. I have been working on cables for 45 years, and have yet to see one that I couldn't identify. Do you have the facilities to take a picture and post it here?

The short answer to your original question is "yes" there's a way to identify the pairs, but I suspect that you don't have the proper tools or experience to do it. As the other guys have correctly stated, it's not your job to fix it.


Arthur P. Bloom
"30 years of faithful service...15 years on hold"