atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems 1A2 and Comkey Telephones & Systems Help Locating Replacement 3" Dial for ITT Model 854 (1A2)?

Hello all. I'm in possession of a moss green ITT 1A2 wall phone model 854. The phone doesn't look like it has ever been used, but there's a good reason why: the phone dial sticks when you turn it as if the spring is jammed. Does anyone have any ideas if this may be repaired? If part replacement is the way to go, any ideas where such an obscure ITT part may be located? Here are some photos to ponder; I pasted the part number from the Practice at top of the second image.





As always, any assistance is appreciated.

Kind regards,

It's possible that the plastic wheel on the dial itself was put on wrong. Try removing it and then see if the dial itself turns freely. If so, replace the plastic (positioning it properly) so that the dial turns.

Sam

As Sam said, the finger wheel may be put on wrong, or the faceplate may be interfering with the dial, or it may be that the lubricant has gummed up. The gears might be not meshing properly, or the governor spring might be lost or broken. Lots of possibilities.

This guy repairs dials for $6.00 (yes, six dollars!)

Steve Hilzs

The dials are very common and can be found in most collectors' parts bins.

Steve H
They this link instead

I'll fiddle with the dial to see if I can free it up. Otherwise, I'm sure Mr. Hilzs can fix things up for me. Of course, even parcel post won't be cheap for this dinosaur. Since pulse dialing doesn't work on my secondary "fake" CO lines anyway, I might ask him to install a Rotatone Pulse to Tone Converter while he's at it. Thanks all; I'll let you know.

Take the finger wheel off and see if the dial will operate properly.

I took the phone apart and the whole inside was filled with 40 year old cobwebs, dial and all. I cleaned up what I could. The problem isn't the dial spring after all; it was in the gears behind the dial. It may have been the wrong thing to do but I gave the dial mechanism a liberal blast of contact cleaner and then some compressed air. The dial returns freely now.

Yes! Taking my finger out of the hole after turning the dial helped too. Thanks for the tip, Bill.

No. Take the finger WHEEL off. Just to make sure it's not binding in someway. You can put some light machine oil on the gears, just don't get any on the contacts.

Not to be a PITA, but you must re-lubricate that puppy if it was cleaned with solvent, otherwise it will wear out very quickly. There is an ITT manual known as TIMM (you may already have it) kicking around on the global web thingie. In the section on dials I think it shows the lubrication points (use a needle-point oiler).

Jim
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Speaking from a secure undisclosed location.

Jim, I did a search for TIMM and found a whole bunch of cool links/manuals!