Adam wrote:
I have an old, 1941 Western Electric Model 302 Telephone. [...]

I've got a couple of 1950s and 1960s 500 sets. One thing I've noticed
is that these sets, if the line cord is original, have three wires -
red, green, and yellow. Red and green are ring and tip and yellow was
originally ground. If you don't hook up the yellow, sometimes these
sets don't work. If I remember right, connecting the yellow to the
green wire makes it work.

I don't know if the older dials have this same problem, but you might
look at http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_au...#AUDIOFAQD_003 .

Is it possible that one of the internal wires has broken inside the
insulation? An ohm meter will tell you pretty quickly.

You might dig around on this site:
http://www.bellsystemmemorial.com/te...erthan500.html . If the
info doesn't help, I think there are links there to people that fix old
phones.

If you can't think of anything else, find out where your local phone
exchange is. Go there around noon when the linemen are sitting in their
trucks, eating lunch. Find the oldest one and trade beer or whatever
for phone repair services.

Matt Roberds