we just bought this house and want to put a phone in the kitchen..unfortunatly, the wires are bare....now we bought the jack and went to install it, and found that there are only three wires coming out of the hole, red, green and yellow..no black,,, how can we install this new jack to an old line that has only the three colored wires?
##-----------------------------------------------## Delivered via
formatting link
Construction and Maintenance Forum Web and RSS access to your favorite newsgroup - alt.home.repair - 308527 messages and counting! ##-----------------------------------------------##
Phones normally use just two wires. Hook up the red and green wires and forget the yellow.
Most of the time the phone wires will only have areound 12 volts on them. While the phone rings there is around 90 volts on the line. This voltage probably will not kill you but it sure can be painful.
On Aug 24, 2:48=EF=BF=BDpm, "Ralph Mowery" wro= te:
ge
the yellow wire was for fancy lighted phones, look around and disconnect any old wall worts. I once found 5 of them plugged into a basement, in a 100 year old home. stuck up in the cieling. i was attempting to troubleshoot a DSL problem and got a tingle off the yellow wire.
since there were no lighted phones they were just a energy waste and perhaps a fire hazard.
Does your phone havve a NID outside? if it does unplug your home while connecting new jack, so you dont get a nasty but not life threatening shock while working on things, or at least take another phone off hook so line is busy, ringing is the nasty shock:(
First thing to do is make sure the line is hot. Lots of abandoned wiring in most old houses. Look in the basement, and try to see where the wire comes out, and see how many colors it has there. 3 color phone wire is rare, likely the black was clipped off on the kitchen end. Loosely attach a phone to the kitchen end, red and green, and see if you have dial tone. Old real (ma bell) phones often used the yellow as a ground line (IIRC, red went to L1, green went to L2, and yellow to GND). Modern disposable phones probably don't care. A pair of alligator clip leads, or better yet a rj11 breakout connector (jack to several alligator clips) comes in handy, if you don't have a butt sett, aka lineman phone. Don't be surprised if the line is garbage, and you need to run new wire. If you do, resist the temptation to disturb the old wire and install a splice- run it all the way back to where the wires come together on the terminal block. If you don't have an outside demarc box, call phone company and hint you want them to install one. That sometimes will get you a fresh drop from the pole, and gets you a nice fresh connector block to play with.
You have my sympathy- the inside wiring in this place is garbage, and I really need to redo it. But since I now have DSL on a separate pair, and nobody ever calls me, it isn't likely to get tp the top of the list anytime soon.
My house (built about 1974) has 3 wires, red/green/yellow. It was probably just what wire the builder had. Unless you're on a party line, phones just need red and green (these connect to the middle 2 wires in the jack).
More than likely, all you need are the green and red wires. The black and yellow wires would be used for a second line if you had one. In a normal residential system, they are not used, even though they may be hooked to terminals as if they are.
wow, i really like to thank you all for your help...who knew that i only needed two of the wires?..i sure didnt, neither did my husband...lol i was pleasantly surprised to find a reply to my question so quickly..again, thank you all..but i do have one more question...you mentioned that one of the wires are for lighted phones, my question is, will my cordless phones have lights on the handset since they will be charged on the regular 110 line?
------------------------------------- Steve Barker DLT wrote:
##-----------------------------------------------## Delivered via
formatting link
Construction and Maintenance Forum Web and RSS access to your favorite newsgroup - alt.home.repair - 309214 messages and counting! ##-----------------------------------------------##
yeah cordless dont depend on phone line power for lights. just forget about it. other than looking and removing any old wall transformers connected to the phone line. they are unnecessary and can cause servce troubles.
On Mon 25 Aug 2008 04:06:08a, wendylee815 told us...
The lights in your cordless phones will work fine, since their lights are operated by the rechargeable batteries in the phones.
The additional wire used to power lights in phones originated when the Bell System introduced sets like the Princess Phones which had no other source of power.
When the tel companies were deregulated, years ago. My Dad bought a little book on phone wiring. I remember it saying 48 volts DC when the phone is not in use "on hook" and about 5 volts DC when the phone is in use "off hook".
Assuming it's a normal analog phone system that's no problem. You only need the red and green wires: The other two aren't used. When the phone isn't being used, there is arounc 48V DC between the wires *red negative w/r to the green). When the phone is picked up, that voltage drops to around 9 to 15 volts, depending on a few things. Ringing voltage is nominally 90 Vac riding on top of 48V DC so it's capable of giving a person a really good kick if you'r handling the wires when the phone rings! So, disconnect the wires from the point where they enter the house; there should be a box there where they can be disconnected. If not, then leave a phone off hook while you do the work. That will set off an alarm in the central office and the phone will loudly complain for awhile, but it stops after about 30 seconds and then the central office just removes power from your phone lines. In this case, it might take up to a few minutes of the phone being back on hook before the central office system gives you back your voltage and dialtone. Normally it's a pretty quick change but some older offices can take quite awhile to return your service.
Test the phone after installing hte box. Try dialing a number from another phone too. If the new phone "tinkles" when the other phone dials out, then just reverse the red and green wires and it'll stop the tinkling. It's not unusual for the red & green wires to be reversed in old installations like you have.
A telco will NEVER use the yellow and black lines for a second line with a normal RJ-11 installation. Those are for lights and grounds in key systems, etc..
You are wrong. This is very common in residential installations. People have a second line for the kids or whatever and it goes on the yellow and black wires.
If you have one line, then the voice comes in through green and red, tip and ring respectively. The yellow and black are for other things - a second line (if you have one) or for the dial light on fones like the Princess which is powered by a transformer plugged into an outlet near the fone. Modern fones don't need the yellow wire for the dial light, these take the power from the green and red wires. You'll want to have another extention off the hook when you work on wiring, because the ringing voltage is 90VAC at 20Hz. In other words, when somebody tries to call you you'll get a painful shock.
You can't read: READ what I said: "A telco will ... ". Using those wires for a phone line can of course be done. ANY wires could be used. But you'll never get a telco to work on them ever again; all they would offer to do would be to rip it out and replace it with properly wired system. Up your reading comprehension skills. Hell, I could use 10 ga green wires if I wanted to. But come back to earth Scottie.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.