sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems 1A2 and Comkey Telephones & Systems Western Electric 568

Just found a new old stock 5 line rotary 568 and would like to bypass the line buttons, remove the 25 pair cable and install a modular jack on the back for single line use, and have the ringer operate. I don't care if the buttons do not illuminate. Is this possible and what rewiring do I need to do? I have the original schematic. Thanks in advance.

DON'T remove the original line cord! This phone might be worth a bunch of money in the future if it's unaltered.

Doing what you want to do is a piece of cake. Locate the terminals designated "1T and 1R" on the keystrip's main terminal board. They will be very close to the left-hand dial bracket. Then, on this same terminal board, locate the black and red leads from the ringer coil. They will be connected to the line cord's slate/yellow pair. Move these black and red leads over to terminals 1T and 1R. Then, either get a spade-tipped modular line cord at Radio shack or just a piece of any old telephone wire. Connect the regular phone line to these same two 1T and 1R terminals. Don't notch the housing, there should be enough room for it to exit the housing through the line cord's hole. Leave the original blue plastic cover on the line cord's connector.

Doing it this will require that line button #1 be pressed to use it. If you really want to do it differently, I can assist you with bypassing the key strip completely.

another way would be to use a female amp connector and connect to pins 26 and 1 for the dial tone (white blue pair ) and yellow slate or yellow orange(on some sets)for the ringer. connect that pair to the phone line with the white blue pair and push button 1 down to get a dial tone.should work on most versions unless hookswitch disables ringer, mostly on wall versions

Thanks for your replies. Ed, could you post how to bypass the key strip altogether? Thanks.

You should be able to connect the incoming line to terminals F and C on the network. You can leave the existing wires there. Also, connect the black and red ringer leads to these same two terminals and you should be good to go.

Thanks again, Mark.

Another way to connect the phone without cutting the original cable is by getting adapters from Here and plugging a standard modular cable into the wall jack and the adapter attached to the telephone cable. If you can't get a female 25 pair adapter you will have to buy a 3 way bridging adapter which is also shown further down the page. From looking at the chart I think you can get the female adapter but I'm just not sure. That chart is tuff to figure out for me. :shrug:

Either way you will need an adapter that will be on line one. If you explain what you are doing the salesman should know exactly what you need.

C'mon, a lot of the salesmen have no clue what 1A2 is. Don't send the poor guy down the primrose path.
John C.

My first thought was also an adapter, but that probably wouldn't help since the original poster doesn't want to actually use the line keys. They just want it to work as a single line set, so there would also be the issue of the ringer pair. Using a 259 adapter would still require selecting a line key.

Yeah, I know he would still have to wire the ringer internally. I just thought since the cord was still going to be connected it would look better than a 4-pair cable tie wrapped to the 25 pair cord and I was expanding a little on what oldtimetech said as well since I think that was what he was describing.

Are you talking about the adapters? They are not difficult to locate and purchase, just follow the link. Here

I get what you're saying clightninghorse. I guess not all salesmen are alike.