Repair phone line for GE 26990 cordless phone

My puppy ate the phone cord to the base station of a GE 26990 cordless telephone/answerer. I tried to repair it with a soldered splice, but that didn't work (the tiny braided wire was very difficult to work with). The next step seems to be to open the base station and replace the damaged phone cord. However, I am somewhat embarrassed to say that I can't get the two pieces separated. I removed the three obvious screws and was able to get the pieces partially separated, but the upper part would not come loose. I am afraid that trying to force it further will destroy it. Any suggestions to this rather dumb question?

 

I know this is obvious, but the cord doesn't just unplug from the base? Most telephone and answering machines have a cord that will unplug for just this type of situation.

If not, then try just twisting the wires together and taping them with electrical tape - I know they're small, but you may have better luck, no real need to solder them - phone wire is not as touchy as say speaker wire.

Getting the phone apart is probably going to be the easy part - getting it back together (and in working order) may prove difficult.

Good luck!

 

Brandon,
Thanks for the reply. I had expected the cord to just unplug from the answering machine, but that isn't the case with this one; it's firmly attached somewhere inside the machine.

I also had planned to twist the wires together or use wire nuts, but this wasn't possible either. The wires are not like those I have seen in other phone lines. They are quite small, brittle, and wrapped with some sort of nylon? filament inside the individual insulation. I couldn't remove the insulation without breaking the wire, so I had to burn it off. The wire was so brittle it couldn't be twisted. It was difficult to solder too, but I tried, and then wrapped it with electrical tape.

After attempting the repair, I tried it out and it worked. However, it quit working a short time later. Right now I'm puzzled as to what to do.

 

I made another attempt at splicing the phone wire and it seems to be working now. (I melted off the insulation with the soldering iron this time.) But now the only button on the answering machine that works is the "page"; I can't set the time or access any of the other features. I guess I misaligned some of the connections when I attempted to separate the two halves of the set (I never did force them completely apart). At this point I think I'll just give up- - unless someone has a solution.

Thanks for all the help.

 

I have several, actually:
Best Buy
Wal-Mart
Target
Radio Shaq
Circuit City
(your favorite local electronics store/retailer)



Sorry, some thing just aren't meant to be fixed unfortunately.

Good luck!

 

Thanks, buddy! (I think I'll go to WalMart since that's the only store easily available in the rural area where I live.)