BT80a junction box- Any idea where I can buy one?

Hi,

I'v been having the house rendered and unclipped the dropwire from my house. Unfortunatley the dropwire is very old grey bellwire and a combination of the old cracked insulation and being moved for the first time in 30 years has caused it to disintegrate.

I think BT should replace it for free but it'll cost me £116 to find out. Anyway, the upshot is I'm going to replace the worst section myself so I need a BT80a to join the shiny new CW1308 to the nasty old bellwire.

I can find plenty of generic screw terminal junction boxes but not a BT80a. Morals, legality and lectures aside, does anyone know where I can get an elusive BT80a?

Thanks in advance. T.

If its the drop wire, a break on a windy day will get them out PDQ

Except its the bit down the wall that's worst affected... not much wind there!

Its apology time now - I've spent about 6 hours searching the web for BT80a and then about 10 minutes after posting this, found an original B T one on on ebay, but listed just as "80a". I know they're internal use only but its going up in the eves so shouldn't get wet.
Cheers,
T.

We now use a dropwire closure for outside which is about 4 inch long and clicks together to protect the crimps , find youself a friendly eng and ask him if he will let you have one or a bt80 if thats what you need .

Thanks for the tip.. I was going to use an empty box with gel crimps, but the bellwire is a much thicker gauge than the new stuff so I'm not sure the crimps would work. I've fixed it today using a BT-branded BT80B (IDC one side, screw connectors the other).

Don't suppose you know the number/name of the proper box, and whether gel crimps will join the thick grey copper bellwire to CW1308?

thanks also for the understanding response - if the BT charges were more reasonable I'd have gone the official route but £116 call out charge and £99 per hour is more than I can afford..

Cheers, T.

The bell wire you refer to is dropwire 6 , all you need to do to use this with the gel crimps is cut back the grey sleeve a little on each wire , just enough so the metal spade in the crimp makes contact with the copper.
The BT80 you have used will cause you major problems if left outside as the pcb inside will get damp due to constant changiges in tempertaure thus causing moisture and rotting the pcp. What you can do is by using a small screwdriver flick out the pcp and then join the wires with the crimps then refit the lid , or if you see an openreach (BT) engineer around ask him if you can have an Overhead dropwire closure of him/her , these are black oblong closure which is weatherproof and all you do is crimp the cables together and close the joint (clicks together with hands) in this anf fix a couple of cable ties to wall or facia board and tie it to this.

Thanks telelec, I'd read that the crimps wouldn't work but assumed it was because of the difference in conductor size, not just the insulation.

I'll follow your advice and keep the housing but use gell crimps inside and if I see a friendly looking OR engineer I'll see if I can get the proper box,

cheers,
T.