How to Wire a Residential Telephone Jack

When you need to replace a telephone jack, there is no need to call and electrician to do the task, nor is there a need to pay the phone company for the maintenance of your internal phone lines. Telephone wiring does not contain dangerous levels of electricity, and the process of connecting jacks is relatively easy. This guide will show you how to wire a residential telephone jack yourself, and in the process, you can save some money.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Screwdriver
• Wire strippers
• Phone jack
• Pliers

1. Locate the phone wire at the area you would like to place your new jack. If there is an old jack connected to it, remove the jack.

2. Remove about 1 1/2 inches of the outer sheathing of the phone wire. You should now see four wires, colored red, green, yellow and black. The red and green wires are used for the primary phone line, and the yellow and black are for a secondary line, if one is installed.

3. Strip off about 3/4 of an inch of insulation from each of the wires. If you have only one phone line, it is not absolutely necessary to strip the yellow and black wires, though stripping and connecting them will make it easier to add another line in the future.

4. Disassemble the new jack. Inside, you will find four screw terminals, with labels indicating the wire colors.

5. Connect each wire to the appropriate terminal. Use your fingers or a pair of pliers to bend a hook into the end of each wire. Place the short side of the hook to the right, so that when the terminal screw is tightened, the wire will not fall off. Some surface-mount jacks may also require that you connect wires from the actual jack to the screw terminals, as well. Always keep the same colors together.

6. Mount the jack securely to the wall.

7. Connect a telephone phone to the new residential jack, and check for a dial tone.

Tips & Warnings

• If there is no wire at the location of the new jack, you may run new wire from another jack or from the network interface. Just make sure to keep the red wires with the red, green with green, black with black, and yellow with yellow.
• Newer phone cable, and even some jacks, may have different color coding. Instead of red, the wire will be blue with a white stripe. Green is now white with a blue stripe. Black is white with an orange stripe, and yellow is orange with a white stripe. In addition, there will be a third pair of wires, which are white and green.