So first let me vent....I HATE EBAY!!!

Sorry, now on to the problem. I bought a used 7135 off ebay (if you hadn't guessed already) and was told it was working fine. I got it and found the loud speaker didn't work so I ordered a replacement ($9.00, not too bad). The replacement arrived and I took the cover off my phone. I found the speaker seemed fine but there was nothing for the two leads to make contact with. So upon searching the forums I found a pic of someone elses phone with the cover off. That is when I realized the ribbon cable (shown in the pic circled in red) on my phone is missing completely! Anyone have any advice on how to fix this problem? I looked at my phone and there is none of the ribbon cable left.

That is a pretty good picture and it appears that there are two signal leads going to what appears to be the speaker. This would make sense as the speaker should only need two. In another thread in this forum, the writer indicated that the speaker made contact to the ribbon cable contacts through pressure only. If your ribbon is gone (???), I would try using small gauge wire (no bigger than 30 gauge) and a small-tip soldering iron to reestablish contact with the signals. The writer who reported the fact that the speaker was not physically attached had a distortion problem and cleared it up by cleaning the speaker. I assume your speaker is held in place by the cover like the other guy's speaker.

Thanks for the reply. The speaker is "connected" via pressure only (the cover holds it in place). I thought about the soldering idea, but I don't have any experience and didn't know if you could solder to ribbon cable? Anyone done it before (not necessarily on their phone, but solder to any ribbon type cable)?

If you are not a great solderer, you might want to find someone who is.

1) real ribbon cable would be very difficult to solder to - the plastic easily melts and is a little challenging to remove. The wires are very small and can be damaged easily. All of this is why most real ribbon cable use insulation displacement connectors - the connector has special tiny prongs that cut through the plastic and pinch onto the wires inside.
2) The "ribbon" cable you have circled is actual some flexible circuit board material. It is likely to be more resilent to the heat of a soldering iron - if you have a very light, quick (ie - expert) touch.
3) Not all metals are solderable! It is VERY likely that the contacts on the speaker may not "wet" to molten solder. Worse, the miniture connections between the contacts and the internal fine wire the makes a speaker, uhm, "speak" will not hold up to much heat at all.

You MAY be able to find someone willing to patch your phone up with some adhesive backed copper foil. The copper might be able to be soldered either directly or with jumpers of fine wire to any copper still available inside the left edge of your red circle.

Someone with the proper experience would also have the setup for minimizing the chance of static electricity damaging the circuit as it is handled (ESD protection).

Someone who knows what they're doing could probably fix this CONNECTION.

But why was the connection broken in the first place? Was it cut or was if fried off? If the latter, then it's highly likely there may be some other damage - like a blown chip that drives the speaker.

I wish you the best of luck in your efforts to get it repaired.

Many of the concerns expressed by ReadOnly are correct and could represent potential problems. I have successfully soldered wiring on a ribbon cable, but great care must be excercised. I used a 10 watt soldering iron with a very small tip. I also made sure that the metal wiring on the ribbon was properly exposed and cleaned of any protective type coating. If the speaker contacts are plated and solder doesn't adhere, you can gently remove the plating with emory cloth or a small fine file. Then be sure to use rosin core solder.

There is a good chance they used copper as the base material for the contacts.

It is possible that they did not.

The speaker's internal wire connections could have been ultrasonicly welded to the back side of the contacts, which means this material might not be solderable.

In any case, do NOT put much heat on the contacts!

Practice on something else first, or seek help if you can't seem to get it soldered quickly.

Or - you may want to order more of the speakers :-p

I would suggest looking at Radio Shack for adhesive backed copper foil to replace the circuit board's function. If it is too thin and won't stand up high enough to contact the speaker's contacts, consider adding some adhesive backed foam underneath it (craft store?).
Just be sure to do your solder to the copper foil before laying it down.
One last thing - copper will oxidize. A light, smooth coating of solder (use lots of flux and then clean it up afterwards) in the area of where the speaker's contacts will touch will prevent bad connection headaches latter.

Again, good luck.