Telephone extension wiring connection problem.

[robinp]

HI,
I viewed this site prior to posting this & it didn't answer my problem.
My phone plug on the living-room end of the extension lead to my wife's bedroom got broken. The lead runs under the carpet so I couldn't replace it for obvious reasons. I bought a new 3m phone extension lead & chopped off the phone plug from one end & about a foot of the lead with the view in mind to connect the plug to the existing extension lead with the use of some insulation tape. However, the lead from the plug has 4 wires with solid colouring of Black, Red, Green & Yellow. The 4 wires on my existing extension lead are coloured: White/Orange tracer, Blue/White tracer, White/Blue tracer & Orange/White tracer. What colour do I connect to what? I appreciate any help I can get.

 

[JimLoskot]

can't help you with the colours but it really doesn't sound like the way to be doing this unless you want a bad phone line

 

[Paul_C]

Just taping the flexible conductors of an extension lead to the solid conductors of fixed wiring cable is certainly not a good method for ensuring a long-lasting, reliable connection. Even if it works now, you can expect problems down the track. Neither should you try to terminate the flexible cores of the extension in the IDC terminals of a jack, as they are not designed for stranded conductors and again you are almost guaranteed to have problems later even if it appears to work.

However, if you really want to do it as a temporary measure.....

The red/green/black/yellow cord on extensions has become common here in recent years with so much of the gear imported from the Far East. Unfortunately, as these aren't to a British telephone wiring standard, there's no guarantee as to which way round the cord was connected to the plug.

You will generally find that the line appears on black & yellow, which corresponds to the blue/white pair on fixed cabling (assuming that the latter is connected in the standard way). For a lot of modern telephones, those two connections alone will suffice, connected either way round (i.e. black to white/blue, yellow to blue/white, or vice versa).

For equipment which needs the third wire for the ringer to operate, you'll need to identify which way round the cord was connected to the plug. Look at the plug you cut off from the extension kit, and see whether black or yellow is closest to the latch (i.e. the right-hand side, as you are looking at the rear of the plug as if inserting it into the jack).

If black, then connect:

Black - blue/white
Red - orange/white
Yellow - white/blue

If yellow, then connect:

Yellow - blue/white
Green - orange/white
Black - white/blue

The white/orange in the fixed cable is not normally used in a simple domestic system.

If you cannot get dial tone on a phone plugged in to the extension jack with the line on black & yellow, then it could be that the wiring has been "crossed" in the socket in the extension kit, in which case try red & green instead.

 

[robinp]

Thanks a lot Paul_C, your advice was exactly what was req'rd. Everything works fine now. I'm not too worried about the insulation tape connection method, I think my house is held together with insulation tape!!
robinp
PS. I've forgotten my algebra, but I wonder how many variations there are to find out by trial & error how to connect 4 different colored wires to 4 other different colored ones?

 

[Paul_C]

PS. I've forgotten my algebra, but I wonder how many variations there are to find out by trial & error how to connect 4 different colored wires to 4 other different colored ones?

If working on the basis that all four conductors in one cable must be connected to all four conductors in the other cable one-to-one, then there are 24 permutations.

Taking the first wire of one cable, you have a choice of four different wires in the second cable with which to connect it. At the second wire in the first cable, you will then have only three possible choices from the second cable. At the third wire in the first cable, there are then only two options. And obviously that leaves you with only one wire from each cable to join together at the finish.

So 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 24.