Home wiring w two 3-way switches and one light fixture help needed

[dirty_sanchez]

Team-

Electricity isn't my forte and I'm completely and totally stumped, befuddled, frustrated, and want to start drinking because I can't figure out what's going on.

The light in the hallway of our house has gone dark and it is controlled by two three-way switches on either end of the hallway.

Thinking the bulb burned out-I changed the bulb-the light didn't come back on though.

I checked the breaker box and nothing had been thrown.

With a multi-meter, I checked to confirm voltage was getting to the light socket and it's getting less than 5 volts or so. 5 volts?..that's strange.

The up/down toggle on one of the three-way switches felt funny so I replaced the switch and replaced the other switch. I wired both new switches in the very same way the old 40 year old switches were wired.

I removed the light fixture and noticed the wires coming out of the ceiling were both white. Normally wouldn't they be white and black?

There aren't any other switches, outlets, lights in the house that don't work.

I've found the youtube vids and other internet wiring diagrams on the subject but it still doesn't help.

Any thoughts?

Dirty

 

[Blue Diamond]

Where did u check for voltage at the two white wires in the ceiling or at the switches? Appears to me u lost a ground somewhere. That will do this.

 

[Sig220]

Depending on how old the wiring is and who did it..........but some circuits like the OP describe are done with common 12-2 with ground romex....and they use the ground in the circuit..not as a ground. Correct wiring for 3 way circuits between switches should be a 3 strand romex with with red, black and white strands but some people take short cuts. So be careful!!!

First rattle out of the box is to find out where the power is coming in at from the breaker box.....should be at one of the switches or at the light itself. Then google wiring diagrams and figure out what you are dealing with.

https://www.google.com/search?q=3+w...tk%2Fthree-way-switch-connection.html;550;576

BTW, not a electrician but have seen stuff wired into houses that should not have been!!

 

[peterf225]

Could have possibly lost the neutral feeding the circuit which would cause the light not to work (have seen it soooo many times). May have lost the hot feeding the fist switch.

Where are you located?

Seen too many times white wires used as a hot but not designated with proper color taping it can be dangerous to work on if not familiar with electricity.

 

[Danny Abear]

You're lost now after removing the old switches. As stated you need to find the hot wire, sounds like at the connection at the light. I can't explain on line exactly how to fix it but the new switches are probably wired different than the 40 year old ones. Newer switches has 2 terms on one side and one term on the other side.the single side feeds the two on the other side when it is switched and those 2 feed the other 2 on the other switch and the 1 term feeds the light to complete the circuit. Is that confusing enough? Just start swapping wires on a switch and try, worst that will happen is trip a circuit breaker.

 

[Untranslate]

I was repairing some broken electrical outlets at my house some time ago and i was getting really weird Vac readings. The culprit was a loose wire. I couldnt tell will it pull the outlet all the way out and the wire slipped out.

 

[dirty_sanchez]

I've been reading up on things some more but I still can't figure out why there's no power coming from the two wire romex.





Both replacement switches had identical terminal positions as the 30 year old switches I replaced. I moved one wire at a time from the old switch to the new switch so I know nothing got attached to a different screw terminal.

I've checked all breakers in the breaker box with a multi-meter and all are good.

The wonky thing that has me scratching my head is that no wiring has been changed in the attic but there's no current going through the black and white power source two wire romex...arrrrggg.

There's a disconnect somewhere and I cant find it and can't figure it out. And to make things even worse, the AC unit is sitting on a piece of plywood directly over the switchbox in question and I haven't yet figured out how to trace the wiring because I have to move a shitpile of insulation out of a pretty darned difficult to get to place in the attic.

But on the sunny side, it's still fairly chilly in the attic.

Thanks for the help guys-I really do.

Dirty

 

[MJCHAMP]

From what I can see it looks like you may have your switches wire wrong. The switches should have one dark screw and the other two gold. The dark screw needs to have the black wire from the cable that has the black and white wire. The switch in the box with the black, red,and white wire needs the have the white wire on the dark screw. The red and black wire on both switches should go on the lighter screws. Does not matter which their put on. Leave the two white wires connect at the light. Hope this helps.

 

[cajun 22]

Looking at the photos, MJCHAMP is correct in his breakdown of the connections. The romex with just the black and white is either the power or the light. The black and red wires need to be hooked to the same place on both switches to work correctly. However there is another connection somewhere in that circuit. Probably in the j-box supporting the light.