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About Don Beck
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Any question on home electrical installations,problems,or changes. If you need an answer within a few hours go to my personal web site. WWW.helpelectrician.com

 
   

You are here:  Experts > Home/Garden > Home Improvement/Repair > Electrical Wiring in the Home > complex wiring problem

Electrical Wiring in the Home - complex wiring problem


Expert: Don Beck - 12/15/2005

Question
OK Here goes.  I took out an old light fixture in the basement in the middle of a circuit to replace it with something else.  I confess I did not pay attention to how it was wired.  When I put in the new one I cannot get the circuit to run correctly.  The power source is at a light fixture before this one.  the power passes through to a switch wich controls 4 lights.  Then it passes through to another 3 way switch controlling a different light.  Then passes through to a recept which is not controlled by any switch.  I cannot seem to figure out how to hook it all back up so the one switch controls the 4 light fixtures, the other 2 three ways do their job, and the recept works all the time independantly of the other 2 switches.  I can get about half to work right.  The only place I disconnected any wires was at the fixture I replaced.

Answer
Hi Steve,

Sounds like we have a can of worms here.

What I need to know is how many pairs of wires are there in this connection. A pair is a black and a white coming out
of the same romex wire(we'll just ignore the grounds for now..(bare or green wires).

Are all the wires black and white or are there red ones in this mix?

Is the basement open, where you can see where each wire goes, or is it a finshed basement with the wires buried in the ceiling and the walls?

If you wish, we can save a little time be e mailing me direct at:

Cruisin1@cox.net



It will be, probably, trial and error unless you have some sort of tester that can read voltage and also ohms.


Don

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This site answers questions related to home electrical wiring, home wiring, general electrical help,and other electrical questions related to aleternating current (AC). You can find help on the National Electical Code, home electrical issues, wiring electrical outlets, installing lighting, electrical grounding, and general electrical help for do-it-yourself projects not require an electrician. If you do not see your home electrical wiring question answered in this area then please ask your electrical wiring question here
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