I was looking though the museum of a local company that supplies restoration parts for antique telephones. Surprisingly, the museum had a Feldfernsprecher 33 (FF33) field telephone in the collection. The FF33 was missing its handset, battery cup, and crank. It was very rusty. The magneto wouldn’t turn. I asked the proprietor if it was for sale. I bought it for $20.
When I got it home, I cleaned it up and got the magneto to turn. After obtaining a handset and crank, the FF33 worked, but the magneto was very weak. The magneto rotor was apparently submerged in dirty water for an extended length of time and the coils were damaged.
So, I had another FF33 which had a magneto that had ends made out of white metal. Over the decades, the white metal disintegrated, causing the magneto to come loose from the frame and the gears between the crank and rotor to disengage. I replaced the disintegrated magneto. Other than having disintegrated white metal ends, the replaced magneto appeared to be in good shape. I decided to change out the water damaged magneto rotor with the good rotor removed from the disintegrated magneto.
The FF33 looks awful, but works very well. The replacement rotor has a full 400 ohms of coil, so it cranks out ringing voltage as it should.
Check out my new book on WW2 German field telephone equipment… https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/rotwang-manteuffel/world-war-2-german-field-telephone-equipment-a-basic-guide-for-reenactors-and-historians/paperback/product-976w9q.html?page=1&pageSize=4
WW2 German Field Telephone Equipment 