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Phone Jack Hookup Problem

11K views 21 replies 12 participants last post by  supers05 
#1 ·
:icon_confused: I just purchased a new phone and am having a heck of a time receiving a clear connection. The phone is the kind where you have a base unit and multiple handsets just plugged in. Since using the new phone, the person on the other end hears distortion and my voice cuts in and out. It sounds clear on my side. I believe that I have narrowed it down that it is not the phone(I have exchanged the unit once) but probably the phone line. I changed out one of the hanging phone wall jack with a flushmount jack. I think that I have it wired correctly but maybe not and that is what is causing the problem. I don't have the new phone plugged into the new flushmount jack now since I can just plug in the phone in this area now. Here is how I wired the flushmount jack. Can you see if I wired it correctly to see if this might be causing my problem.

There are two wires coming out of the wall in this(flushmount) area now. I have stripped the two(one from each wall wire) blue wires and two white wires. I twisted the two blue wires together and the two white wires together. I put the blue wires under the screw that has red wire coming to it. I put the two white wires under the screw that has the green wire coming to it. Is this the correct way to wire it. Could this be causing my problem?

To confuse me further, I took the base unit, and plugged it in, to my basement to test it there and made a call and was told that the call was clear. The jacks were installed by a remodeler that finished part of my basement. Would these lines be different than on my other level to cause the phones to not have distortion?

I'm sure that this is as clear as mud......I hope that I have explained this enough for someone to be able to help me so I can determine my problem. Maybe you think that the problem is something else? I use my phone a lot so I am getting frustrated and would like help to fix this. Thanks to any and all that can help.
 
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#3 ·
Let me preface this by saying that I am not a low voltage expert. What I do know is that there is ONLY one right way to hook up a phone. Assuming where you twisted the wires is tight and the connection to the jack is right, then the problem is somewhere else. You also need to check where the remodeler tapped into the system and make sure his connections are tight. Good luck,

Andy
 
#5 ·
There are eight wires in each wire coming out of the wall. To further clarify, I twisted together the blue wire with white marks to the red wired screw amd the white wire with the blue marks to the green wired screw. Thanks!
here is my method of verifying... go to the basement where yo usaid the phone works, see were those wires are going and do the same thing on your new jack

:huh:
 
#8 ·
Concerning the wires coming out of the wall, should the blue wire with the white marks get twisted with the white wire with the blue marks? Or is it blue/white marks go w/ blue/white marks? If it is the first choice, what screw does it get screwed with? Red or green?
 
#11 ·
Untwist the wires and connect 1 set only. Test the phone. If no dial tone you have the outgoing wires. Connect the other set and test again. If the call is clear, reconnect the outgoing wires and test again. If the call is not clear, the problems lies between there and the next phone box.
You have to eliminate all connections to find the bad one.
 
#13 ·
JBfan

Great advice. The phone is now clear after I found out which wire was the outgoing like you said. I connected one of the blue wires to the red screw and the white to the green screw and the phone works great. I did not connect the other blue and white wire(from the wall) to the jack yet. I checked both of my main phone jacks and one works and the other does not. Of course that means that the wire that I didn't hook up is for the dead jack. My question now is, do I twist them together with the green and red screws as I did before? Do I use other colors of wires(or the blue and white) from the wall and wrap them around the other color screws on the jack(Yellow and black)? Thanks for your great advice.
 
#14 ·
You don't have totwist them, just put them under the screw like the others.
If the static comes back, then you have a bad wire.
You can use any 2 colors you want, as long as you change it at the other jack. Sometime that works, sometime it dosen't. You may have to pull a new wire.
Keep us informed!
 
#16 ·
JB

When I hooked the loose wires under the screws that contained the wires from the first wires out of the wall(when the reception was clear) the phone began to cut out again. So I have narrowed it down to the problem wire at least. I am stumped as to my next step other than running a new wire like you suggested I might have to do. Any other suggestions? Could it possibly be something in the outside phone box(something that the phone company could possibly fix)?
 
#17 ·
If you have disconnected the wires at the "destination" plug, then you have two wires shorting together in the wall, or one wire shorting to a ground.

Is it also possible that this run continues to somewhere else ? Most of these type of problems would show up where the wires come out of the wall into a Jack. Look for a poor wire stripping job.

Replace would be easier that trying to find the problem in the wall.

Since you have a clear signal, I can't see how it could be the outside.
 
#18 ·
I tried the picking any color wire trick and doing the same on both ends. I didn't get a dial tone doing that. I thought about the staple in the wire senerio but the phone jacks were working fine for 10 plus years until a couple of weeks ago. Could that be possible? I hate to have to call the phone company, since they will probably charge me loads to fix something very easy......Thanks for everyones opinions and suggestions!!
 
#19 ·
I tried the picking any color wire trick and doing the same on both ends. I didn't get a dial tone doing that. I thought about the staple in the wire senerio but the phone jacks were working fine for 10 plus years until a couple of weeks ago. Could that be possible? I hate to have to call the phone company, since they will probably charge me loads to fix something very easy......Thanks for everyones opinions and suggestions!!
Kenny, I love your optimism on hopefully blaming the phone company, it got me tickled.:laughing: :whistling2: If I was going to pay someone to sting a new line between jacks, it dang sure wouldn't be the phone company. Hire a pro.:huh: :whistling2:

Andy
 
#20 ·
Kenny....The phone company no longer does "house wiring" and hasn't for the past 30 or so years, at least here in Wisconsin. Usually that is done by an electrician. The thread is a little confusing, but let me suggest this: 1st of all, all you need is 2 individual conductors for your phone to work. These normally are the white / white blue pair. At this time don't twist these two wires together with the other two white / white blue wires. Only one of those wires come from the phone company terminal, the other goes to a different phone jack. Hook your phone up using the single white/white blue....If it works, then the problem is in the second wire. If not, the trouble will be with the phone jack or the wire going to the phone terminal. You could run a separate wire from the phone terminal, but it can be confusing (to some folks), and if you do decide to run a wire, let me suggest to just run it on the floor just to confirm that it is or is not the problem. I would hate to have you run it through the walls or through an attic only to find that it is not the problem. Questions? email me at dennisj42003@yahoo.com I hope this all helped.
 
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