sundance-communications.com Forums More-Phone & VoIP Systems Antique Telephones how to wire my payphone

i bought an old southwest bell payphone years ago and am finally getting around to hooking it up, thought all i needed was a 2 wire, ring and tip,i get a weak dial tone, can't call out, when i call in it rings till i answer, but get no sound, just the weak dial like tone,can anyone help me, as you can see from the pics it is a single slot touch tone, can't find any #'s anywhere, thanks cary

Try reversing the polarity of the tip and ring going in to the phone. I'm curious as to what that green/white wire on the bell terminal goes to.

tried reversing the tip and ring wires, no deference, the green / white wire is a ground that i put in, but it is not hooked up, just looks like it, thanks for your input, i'll keep checking stuff' cary

It sounds like you might have a prepay unit where a coin deposit is required before the phone's network is cut through. Do you know what model the phone is? It should be stamped in orange paint on the back side. I know for sure that a 1D2 model will function fully without modification or the need for a coin deposit.

Also, check to make sure that there's nothing held in the escrow chamber by gently pushing in on the coin relay's armature to open the hopper and dump any coins that might be in there. When the coin relay fires, the contacts will mute out the phone's network so that the user doesn't hear the noise caused by the 130VDC sent to activate the relay.

ed, good call, i did have a few coins in the escrow bin, got that freed up and also found an incoming wire issue and it now works perfectly, no coins required, don't know if that is correct, but i'll take it, my father who is about the smartest guy i've ever known has a saying about when you have a problem, you expect it to be the most difficult thing in the world to fix, but 98 % of the time is the simplest, once again he is correct, thanks for your help, couldn't have done it without you, cary

Sweet. Glad that it worked out for you. Stay around here with questions about nearly anything. You'll be amazed at what you can learn with the millions of years of knowledge that exist in this place. Thanks for letting us know how you made out.

can do, i've got pin balls, juke boxes, neons, old radios, pointing dogs, maybe you guys can help with all, thanks again cary

cary you would be surprised what people here know, stay tuned

Cary, if you have an extra neon transformer, they're great for building 'Jacob's Ladders'.
John C.