Replacing an old GPO jack plug
 

I have an old GPO jack plug fitted onto a standard wall box. I want
to replace it with an up-to-date socket so that I can use it. I
haven't been able to find its details online so if anyone can help,
I'd be grateful.

It was installed when the house was built, about 1970. It has five
terminals:

1 - brown wires (2)
2 - orange wires (2)
3 - blue wires (2)
4 - green (1)
4A - brown which is looped back to 1.

There are two cream-insulated wires coming into the box, since this
extension oulet is one of several in the house and the wiring goes on
to the next room.

The fitting is flush to the wall with a standard metal box behind it,
set into the wall exactly as a light switch would be.

The cream plastic face of the jack has "GPO" on it.

What is its model number and what which wires would I use when I
replace it with a standard extension socket?
Ta,

Timbrook99 wrote:

I have an old GPO jack plug fitted onto a standard wall box. I want
to replace it with an up-to-date socket so that I can use it.

You do realise that *you* shouldn't be touching that don't you?

Perhaps if your modem/fax/phone started "having intermittent problems"
and BT had to send an engineer out, and you offered him/her nice tea &
biscuits the "fault" would require a new faceplate to be fitted ;-)

Do you mean like this?
http://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/images/95a.jpg
If so it will be part of a plan 4 or similar and you can't just replace 1
socket

"Timbrook99" wrote in message
om...
I have an old GPO jack plug fitted onto a standard wall box. I want
to replace it with an up-to-date socket so that I can use it. I
haven't been able to find its details online so if anyone can help,
I'd be grateful.

It was installed when the house was built, about 1970. It has five
terminals:

1 - brown wires (2)
2 - orange wires (2)
3 - blue wires (2)
4 - green (1)
4A - brown which is looped back to 1.

There are two cream-insulated wires coming into the box, since this
extension oulet is one of several in the house and the wiring goes on
to the next room.

The fitting is flush to the wall with a standard metal box behind it,
set into the wall exactly as a light switch would be.

The cream plastic face of the jack has "GPO" on it.

What is its model number and what which wires would I use when I
replace it with a standard extension socket?
Ta,

In article ,
(Timbrook99) writes:
I have an old GPO jack plug fitted onto a standard wall box. I want
to replace it with an up-to-date socket so that I can use it. I
haven't been able to find its details online so if anyone can help,
I'd be grateful.

You can't simply swap them. The jack plugs run the phone bells in
series, and you'll need to change the circuitry for parallel phone
operation, which will require rewiring the separate bell box you
should have too (or disconnecting it). Probably best to consider
it as starting fresh with a master socket where your two wires
enter the house, and then wiring extensions where you want them.
You could reuse the existing wire to avoid wrecking decorations.
It also requires re-jumpering the phones if you want to continue
using them. Obviously, you aren't really allowed to do this
yourself though.

This change will probably also affect your line rental. People
without modern phone sockets get a discount on the line rental
(but pay rental for the phones). The jack plug scheme you have
was also an extra rental charge option. It might be that your
line rentral will drop if you get BT to do this officially for
you. Don't know what they charge for doing it though.

--
Andrew Gabriel

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 16:51:33 +0000, Andy Burns
wrote:

Timbrook99 wrote:

I have an old GPO jack plug fitted onto a standard wall box. I want
to replace it with an up-to-date socket so that I can use it.

You do realise that *you* shouldn't be touching that don't you?

Perhaps if your modem/fax/phone started "having intermittent problems"
and BT had to send an engineer out, and you offered him/her nice tea &
biscuits the "fault" would require a new faceplate to be fitted ;-)

Thats what happened to me yeras ago .I had an engineer out to fix a
line fault,he noticed I sytill had the old style socket and
"suggested " I might like it modernised so he changed it and gave me a
new style phone .i passed a few shekels his way and offf he went .
Stuart

In article ,
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
You can't simply swap them. The jack plugs run the phone bells in
series, and you'll need to change the circuitry for parallel phone
operation,

The strange thing is they don't. On that plan the bells were in parallel -
otherwise you'd have needed some form of switch when one was unplugged.

I've got the original wiring diagram of both the installation and phone
strapping if you'd like a copy.

--
*Change is inevitable ... except from vending machines *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Timbrook99" wrote in message
om...
I have an old GPO jack plug fitted onto a standard wall box. I want
to replace it with an up-to-date socket so that I can use it. I
haven't been able to find its details online so if anyone can help,
I'd be grateful.

Order broadband and they'll replace it for free.

BT will replace it free of charge if asked. They will not be at all happy if
you try to do so yourself!

--
Peter Crosland

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
You can't simply swap them. The jack plugs run the phone bells in
series, and you'll need to change the circuitry for parallel phone
operation,

The strange thing is they don't. On that plan the bells were in parallel -
otherwise you'd have needed some form of switch when one was unplugged.

The bells are in series. There is a set of contacts in the jack that form a
switch when the plug is unplugged.

"Timbrook99" wrote in message
om...
I have an old GPO jack plug fitted onto a standard wall box. I want
to replace it with an up-to-date socket so that I can use it. I
haven't been able to find its details online so if anyone can help,
I'd be grateful.

It was installed when the house was built, about 1970. It has five
terminals:

1 - brown wires (2)
2 - orange wires (2)
3 - blue wires (2)
4 - green (1)
4A - brown which is looped back to 1.

There are two cream-insulated wires coming into the box, since this
extension oulet is one of several in the house and the wiring goes
on
to the next room.

The fitting is flush to the wall with a standard metal box behind
it,
set into the wall exactly as a light switch would be.

The cream plastic face of the jack has "GPO" on it.

What is its model number and what which wires would I use when I
replace it with a standard extension socket?
Ta,


Sounds like a "jack 420" socket to me

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 19:16:21 +0000 (UTC), "Andrew Mawson"
wrote:


"Timbrook99" wrote in message
. com...
I have an old GPO jack plug fitted onto a standard wall box. I want
to replace it with an up-to-date socket so that I can use it. I
haven't been able to find its details online so if anyone can help,
I'd be grateful.

It was installed when the house was built, about 1970. It has five
terminals:

1 - brown wires (2)
2 - orange wires (2)
3 - blue wires (2)
4 - green (1)
4A - brown which is looped back to 1.

There are two cream-insulated wires coming into the box, since this
extension oulet is one of several in the house and the wiring goes
on
to the next room.

The fitting is flush to the wall with a standard metal box behind
it,
set into the wall exactly as a light switch would be.

The cream plastic face of the jack has "GPO" on it.

What is its model number and what which wires would I use when I
replace it with a standard extension socket?
Ta,


Sounds like a "jack 420" socket to me

It's actually a "Jacks 95A" and the corresponding plug is a "Plugs
420"...

As has already been said, this is a "Plan 4" installation, where
bell/s in the phone/s and a fixed bell are all in series, with a break
contact between terminals 4 and 4A in the jack/s.

If the line had been on "shared service" there would have been a
"Jacks 96A", with six terminals.
--
Frank Erskine
Sunderland

Perhaps I didn't explain properly.
The jack socket in question is an extension socket not the primary one
that was sorted by BT years ago. Thus I don't think BT will be very
interested in it.

So, given the layout described and assuming it's a 95A,
which of the wires do I connect to a modern socket?
TB

On 21 Mar 2005 02:31:07 -0800, (Timbrook99)
wrote:

Perhaps I didn't explain properly.
The jack socket in question is an extension socket not the primary one
that was sorted by BT years ago. Thus I don't think BT will be very
interested in it.

So, given the layout described and assuming it's a 95A,
which of the wires do I connect to a modern socket?
TB

Would you not be better getting a length of the wire currently in use
and replace what is there already.
Stuart

On 21 Mar 2005 02:31:07 -0800, (Timbrook99)
wrote:

Perhaps I didn't explain properly.
The jack socket in question is an extension socket not the primary one
that was sorted by BT years ago. Thus I don't think BT will be very
interested in it.

So, given the layout described and assuming it's a 95A,
which of the wires do I connect to a modern socket?

It sounds a bit of a non-standard installation if you have a mixture
of a modern "primary" socket and a 95A.

From your master socket you need three wires (a "pair" and a single)
to go to the corresponding terminals of your new "secondary" socket.
The colour scheme you mentioned indicates a "quad" so it doesn't
really matter which actual colours you use, but you need to
interconnect terminals 2,3 and 5 of the "new-style" socket.

--
Frank Erskine
Sunderland

In article ,
Timbrook99 wrote:
Perhaps I didn't explain properly.
The jack socket in question is an extension socket not the primary one
that was sorted by BT years ago. Thus I don't think BT will be very
interested in it.

So, given the layout described and assuming it's a 95A,
which of the wires do I connect to a modern socket?

The BT diagram I have shows this recommendation when converting :-

Blue to 2
Brown to 3
Green to 4
Orange to 5

Green isn't normally used.

--
*Geeks shall inherit the earth *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message --
*Geeks shall inherit the earth *

I thought they already owned it ;-)

"Timbrook99" wrote
So, given the layout described and assuming it's a 95A,
which of the wires do I connect to a modern socket?
Have a look here
http://www.wppltd.demon.co.uk/WPP/Wi...telephone.html
lots of useful info

The jack plug is what you push into the socket, the socket is just
called a "jack".

pedantic,

Cambridge

In article . com,
wrote:
The jack plug is what you push into the socket, the socket is just
called a "jack".

pedantic,

Snag is in the good ol' manual exchanges etc, a lead with jack plugs on
either end was known as simply a jack lead...

--
*Monday is an awful way to spend 1/7th of your life *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

*Geeks shall inherit the earth *

I thought they already owned it ;-)

At an IETF a few years ago, the rather flash Stockholm hotel - the one
they do the Nobel Prizes in, ISTR - didn't have too many elevators, and
were frequently clogged with a stream of IETF types trying to get in and
out. I was *most* impressed by the speed with which one of the wags
advised the assembled multitude to 'beware of geeks barring lifts'...