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Wiring Blocks

The most common wiring blocks are little square half-cubes that are screwed to the baseboard. They are covered by a plastic or metal open-box-shaped cover held on with a single screw through the center that removes with a screwdriver. Old-style nonmodular phones will be hardwired to the wiring block—the two wires (or three in European-style phones) inside the cord leading from the phone are stripped at the ends and the wire wrapped around the same brass screws that hold the R/G station wire pair. (If the old wiring blocks and the station wire running through them are painted into the woodwork, removal can be a chore. You'll have to chip off paint on top to get at the screw holding the cover on, and often have to chip paint off around the base of the cover where it fits against the baseboard to free it up.)

Modern modular phones are not hardwired but are removable, and connected to the wiring block via a little clear-plastic RJ-11 plug that contains four small brass pinconnectors. These connectors in the plug mate with four brass pins inside the socket that is molded into the modular jack on the wall. The electrical connection between the two sets of pins is maintained by pressure from the little plastic spring tab molded into the top of the plug that exerts a constant pressure when the plug snaps into place inside the jack-socket. (This system is a marvel of simplicity and longevity, and the result of many years of testing by MaBell in its later years. I have never known an RJ-11 plug to fail or an ATT-made socket to malfunction unless sorely abused. This cannot be said of some cheap imitations sold in mall stores.)

At the back of the socket, four wires color-coded B,R,G, and Y lead out from the pins and terminate in spade lugs (Ushaped thin/flat-brass connectors that slip in between the washers under the screws in the wiring block). The stripped ends of the incoming and outgoing station wire (one coming from the pole via the interface and another leading away to extensions) are formed by the installing wireman into small loops that are slipped between the washers on the appropriate screw terminal along with all other wires of the same color-code.

NOTE: All wiring blocks will have the letters R, G, B, and Y molded into the plastic housing beside the brass wiring terminals. It really doesn't matter which post holds which color. It is easiest to follow the molded—in codes, and be sure that all the red-coded wires go on the R post, all the yellow wires on the Y post and so on.

With a screwdriver, loosen the brass screws in all four wiring posts. Slip out the spade lugs at the ends of the four colorcoded wires coming out of the modular jack.

The phone should go dead when you remove the R/G pair. Temporarily fasten the spade lugs at the ends of the red and green wires coming from the modular jack connected to the phone to the yellow and black posts on the wiring block. It doesn't matter which wire goes on which post.

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