wiring diagram help...

[RyanVT]

soooo I've got the following wiring setup in our kitchen......old farmhouse and i've been slowly upgrading the old wiring as we remodel. The five light fixtures are replacing the single that was located above the sink, there's one 3-way for the central ceiling fixture, and a seperate power in from the dining room light.

I replaced the wiring one at a time and made the connections as i thought they were previously, but when power was turned back on, only my 3-way was working. The single switch for the seperate fixtures wouldn't come on.

My question is, how should this connection be made at the ceiling fixture??

Thanks.....

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q306/wryfly/diagram.jpg

[TnAndy]

Well....the first issue I see is IF you have the series of light wired TRULY in series, they won't light.....and if you parallel them, ( which from your drawing, I believe you have) and put the switch at the end, then you ALWAYS have power at the lights, which could potentially make changing a burned out bulb a shocking experience....ahahahaaa...

But that doesn't address why they won't come on.....because even though wired incorrectly safety wise, they should still work IF you have the connection right at the ceiling, which is where you think you have your problem.

In the ceiling box, ( I'm going to disregard grounds for this discussion to simplify ) you should have a black-white pair on your power in feed....then a black-white pair running down to the new light string.....then two black-white-red sets, one to each 3way.

The black of the power in should connect to the black of new light string, and ONE of the blacks going to ONE of the 3ways (either one). That takes power to the new light string, and one 3way switch.

The white and red of the 3way connects ONLY to itself....white to white....red to red...these are "traveler" wires that shuttle power from 3 way switch to 3 way switch, depending on which is up or down.....

The OTHER black of the 3way wire ( not the one connected to the power in ) is where your power comes OFF of the 3ways.....it connects to that ceiling fixture black ( or one side if they are the same color ). The other side of the ceiling fixture ( should be white ) connects to the white of the power in white.....and the white of the new light string cable also connects to the power in white.....so.....looking in the ceiling box you should see THIS:

Black power in wire w/ black power out to NLS ( new light string ) and one 3way.....3 blacks one wire nut.

Black of 3way to ceiling fixture

White of ceiling fixture + white of NLS wire nutted to white of power in feed.

Red and white of 3way conductors wire nutted to each of themselves.

[giddonah]

As Andy said, you need to get that switch in front of the 5 lights to interrupt power, but according to the diagram, you should get light as long as the breaker is on. check to see where you have power (non-contact voltage detector $15 at the 'depot).

Follow power along the circuit starting at the panel with the black wire. Power needs to go down the black wire, hit the switch to interrupt it (meaning you wire one black coming from the panel to one screw, and one black going to your lights to the other screw), then it goes up to all the lights. From there, it comes back on the white all the way to the panel uninterrupted.

Here are some
three-way switches (http://www.the-home-improvement-web.com/information/how-to/three-way-switch.htm)
simple light (http://www.indepthinfo.com/wire-switch/switch-light.shtml)
another simple light (http://www.hometips.com/hyhw/electrical/22switches.html)
I didn't read any of that. The diagrams look good though.

[sharon333]

Thanks for the links. I was looking around the net for something like that show my crew.