I took a light fixture down to clean it, when I returned it I tightened the center bolt until it tore through the positive wire and blew the breaker. I cut off the burnt wire, stripped it, and rewired it. Now it won't work! It will work with white wire to white but won't switch on-off, red hot won't work at all (that's the wire that was cut).
Did you use a wire splicer on the wire when you rewired it? Just putting the ends back together and taping over them will not work in a lot of cases. If this does not work then you need to check the wires with a voltmeter to make sure you are getting current to flow through them. If you are not then the light fixture should be replaced. Other than this you may need to pull down more wire and cut off a larger piece to fix this.
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I am getting power all the way to the light fixture, but when I screw the bulb in the power goes away. What do I do how do I fix it?
Thanks.
To tell you the truth this looks old and needs to be replaced. Go out and buy a new light and the electrical parts and wire it up to fix your issue. Like you said the current flows all the way to the fixture until you screw in the light bulb and then it is not making contact.
My friends light is not working in his bedroom. The lighting circuit breaker is on and the other lights and switches in the circuit are working. I replaced the switch and light fitting, but it still doesn't work. I don't have any test equipment, but to me it seems as though the switch isn't getting any power to it.
Any ideas?
Thanks
I would think you would need a test meter to determine for sure. You can get simple ones for around $20.
It is possible that the light is fed from the load side of a GFCI or AFCI receptacle. If this is the case, it would be an easy fix to reset the tripped receptacle.
Going beyond that, I would hire an electrician to help identify that both the power and the neutral are continuous to the light. (a meter would show about zero resistance between neutral and ground and with power on it would show 120 VAC between hot and neutral or ground)
