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Posted by Pete C. on August 29, 2006, 3:26 pm
ChefBoy wrote:
>
> Hello all - I think this is my first post here, but I am a frequent reader
> and lurker.
>
> We are doing some remodeling in our kitchen. To "clean things up" before we
> have some tile demo'd, I cut some wires out of an OLD phone connection in
> the wall - this is the kind before modular, where the phone cord entered the
> plate through a hole and hard-wired into the phone wiring. Although this
> was an OLD connection, it was apparently "live" as we now have no dial tone.
>
> I've tried doing some research on phone wiring to see if I can fix this
> myself - and haven't seen reference to my situation. There appear to be 6
> wires coming into the box - all with solid brown insulation. So - I'm not
> sure which ones to join together to reconnect the line. We have only one
> active phone line.
>
> Does anyone know how this is supposed to work? I'm not well-equipped with
> testers - is there one I could buy to find the active wires?
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
> CB
If by removing those connections you lost dial tone to other phone jacks
in the house, one of two things occurred. Either the phone line pair
(two wires) passed through the junction point you disconnected in which
case you need to identify which two wires are the incoming phone line
and which are the feed to the other phone jacks, or you shorted out the
phone line in which case you need to remove the short.
To determine if you have a short, try calling your number from another
phone like a cell phone. If you get a busy signal you likely have a
short since a short will take the phone line "off hook".
If you don't have a short, find an extra short modular phone cable and a
convenient newer phone to use for testing. Cut one end off the modular
cable and strip back the insulation to get the red and green wires at a
reasonable length. Strip the ends of the red and green wires and the
mystery wires at the old phone jack point.
Mark the mystery wires with some masking tape and numbers so you can
keep track of them. Get a piece of paper and write down all the possible
pairings of the mystery wires. Sequentially work through each possible
pair connecting the red and green wires from your test phone and see if
you get dial tone (you can leave it off hook). The polarity of the wires
won't matter for most any modern phone, only quite old phones were
polarity sensitive.
Once you find the incoming phone line mark you will then need to figure
out which of the remaining four wires are the feed to the other phone
jacks. With a phone plugged into one of the other phone jacks you'll
have to experiment connecting the two wires for the incoming phone line
to the various combinations of the remaining wires until you have the
other phone working. Once you have that remote jack working you may find
you need to connect the remaining two wires to the incoming line as well
to activate another remote phone jack.
Phone line voltages are generally safe. Only if the line rings when
you're holding the wires will you get a shock, and even then it's more
annoying than dangerous.
When you have it sorted out be sure to label the connections for future
reference.
Pete C.
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