Need electrician advice!

[thebattle]

I have an older house not real old made in 70's but anyway, My porch light stoped working thought it was the bulb changed it still didn't work. Right next to it is my flood light to the outside of the house and there on the same breaker and it worked fine. So i went out and bought a 3-way switch and hooked it up and still have nothing. I changed the switch b/c it was an original switch in the house and it looked awful and it just seemed that maybe there was a possibility of the switch going bad. Still got nothing i notice on the 3way theres places for four wires and on my old switch there was only two? Is it possible that maybe a 3 way is not compatable with my wiring since i only have 2 wires available? Hope this makes sense

[lonewolf]

You only need 3-way switches when you have two switches for one light. For instance, a stairway light that has a switch at both the top and bottom of the steps. If you look, there is no "on-off" designation on a 3-way switch because either position can be on or off.

If there is only one switch for your porch light, you must use a standard 2-way on-off switch with only 2 terminals + ground. If it is wired to code, there should be 2 black (hot) wires to connect to the 2-way switch. One of them is always hot and the other is the switched hot to the light. The white (neutral) wires should all be connected together.

If you wire it this way and it still doesn't work, its probably an open circuit or corrosion at the fixture.

[songsmith]

Check the 2nd bulb, too. I've attempted to "repair" a fixture, when the bulb was defective from the factory, or went south during shipping. Porch lights are susceptible to loose connections, too, they're outside, and freeze/thaw will do it, as well as building vibration from wind, trains, traffic, etc. It's amazing how little vibration it takes to loosen an electrical connection... I think amps take as much punishment in the truck as they do onstage.--->JMS

[lonewolf]

Porch lights are susceptible to loose connections, too, they're outside, and freeze/thaw will do it, as well as building vibration from wind, trains, traffic, etc. It's amazing how little vibration it takes to loosen an electrical connection...--->JMS

Thank you for translating "open circuit".

After dealing with decades of technical jargon, I have trouble calling a loose wire a loose wire. lol

[songsmith]

Sorry, Jeff, I guess I missed the last sentence of your post! --->JMS

[thebattle]

well i replaced the switch accordingly and nothing ugh so i went bought a new lighting fixture thought maybe something was wrong with the old one, well that didn't work either im not sure whats wrong with it now. Should i just find somebody with a voltmeter or go buy one just too see if its getting power to the wires?

[nighthawk]

i suggest finding someone to help you out who knows how to trace back a circuit. i helped my dad once and when i was testing everything found an open ground. the light still worked but i was wandering why i had the open ground. we tore the inside of the porch roof down to find that a raccoon had made its way up there and chewed thru the wire. we had to replace the whole thing. if i wouldn't have found it he would still be using a wire that was a huge fire safety issue. the insulation was gone at that point and there was nothing but bare copper being used. Ive done a lot of repairs for things of which you are speaking and nearly every time it was a different issue. every thing from running a nail thru the wire when hanging a picture to a horrible job with the wire nuts, sometimes the power will be coming from a receptacle in which the receptacle went bad, faulty switches, faulty fixtures, rodents chewing tru the wires. the list goes on and on. my best suggestion is to find someone who can take care of it for you so you know it is fixed and tested correctly.

[ToonaRockGuy]

I don't work on electricity. I did once. I wound up flying back about 3 feet and smacking into the wall. Now, I call an electrician.

I may not be smart, but I'm smart enough to know that I'm not smart enough to fuck with electricity.