On 1/8/2012 7:48 AM, John Grabowski wrote:

I've got a house that the door chime stopped working (making a chime
noise). I know it's not the outside button and the two wires outside
that connect to the button (that go thru the outside brick wall) when
touching each other showed some spark. One repair guy asked me if
it's a 16v or 24v transformer and I don't know. He seemed to say it's
not a part of the chime box inside. I thought everything was self
contained inside the chime box that mounts on the wall. Is this a
DIY job??? Any good URL to watch on this repair?


*If you got a spark, the transformer is working. I've had some customers
who have had problems with their chimes. In two instances the problem
was as a result of the cover not being seated properly and was
interfering with the mechanism. In others it was just a bad chime. Buy a
new chime and try it out.

And as a temporary measure, try connecting the wires to the unused rear
door solenoid. When you take the chime cover off, you should find where
your 2 wires are connected. At that location you should see a 3rd
terminal. Since you have no rear doorbell button, this terminal won't
have a wire connected. Of the two terminals where the wires are
currently connected, one should be marked "T" or "Trans", leave that one
connected. Remove the other one and relocate it to the unused terminal.
Test the button and see if you now get a "ding"