Replace Old Phone Jack

I am trying to replace an old phone jack. I screwed up by not paying attention to which wires were hooked up to the old one. I've tried connecting different combinations of wires, but nothing works.

There are two sets of wires coming out of the wall, in the colors, red, green, black, yellow, blue, and white (total of 12 wires). The colors of wires in the telephone box on the outside of the house are blue, blue & white, orange, orange & white.

I unscrewed the phone jack in another room, and there is only one set of wires coming out of the wall, and only the yellow and black wires are hooked up to that phone jack.

The phone jack I bought has screws to hook up all 12 wires, and is clearly marked as to which wire color goes where.

There is only one phone line in the house, but previous owners may have had more than one.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Is there any way to check the wires to see which ones are live?

I need Help!

 

Well, there is a way to check the wires without a test set, but it's somewhat painful

Take a look at this thread if you want to know how to make a "homemade" test set - I'm New to this Forum - A quick phone Question

As for your problem, you may have to try some trial and error here. But I can make it much easier for you. First of all, the jack only needs 2 wires connected to it to get a dial tone. And, those wires should only be connected to the Red/Green terminals on the jack. So, that being said, you only have 3 options of how to connect it - Red/Green wires to Red/Green terminals (on the jack) - Black/Yellow wires to Red/Green terminals - Blue/White wires to Red/Green terminals. Assuming no one has goofed with the wires too much and made a bad splice - one of those combinations will work.

If that doesn't work, let us know and we'll go from there. But you should be able to get a dial-tone with one of those. Just keep your phone connected to the jack and touch each pair of wires to the Red/Green terminals until you hear a dial-tone (that will save you having to actually connect the wires and screw them down, then pick up the phone etc.) This could also be considered a form of "test set."

If you want more explanation on phone wiring and phone jacks, see this page.

Good luck!

 

The Good News - the black/yellow wires to the red/green terminals on the new telephone jack produced a dial tone. Yea!!

The Bad News - the phone jack in the other room with the yellow and black wires hooked up to it no longer works.

What Do I Do Now???

Thanks.

 

R.Ann:You said you had two wires at 1st jack you were replacing-right?If you did not connect the black/yellow of 2nd wire on green/red screws of jack when connecting dialtone back with 1st wire then you have cut-off dialtone to other room.2black/2yellow conductors@jack screws for dialtone in and out.

 

I finally figured that out earlier. I kept thinking about what I could have done wrong. You were right, I needed to hook up two yellow wires and two black wires to the red and green terminals.

This was my first phone wiring experience. No kidding, right?

Both phone jacks work now. I feel like I've won the lottery!

Thanks for all the help.

 

I just used my teeth to strip the wires---that way I knew which one carrier current--kind of hurt, ALthough my buddy did the same thing once at the exact time someone tried to call the phone line---ouch!!

 

ahh man, thanks!! my phone and internet was down and all i had was blue/white, white/blue, orange/white and white/orange jacks!! i read you post on my cell phone(man it was hell) and did some brainstorming and i'm back online!! thanks!!!