Help needed with old wiring

[matthewgordon]

Hi all,

A neighbour has asked me to look at the light switch in his hallway as he has taken the switch off the wall to decorate and has forgotten where everything goes. Attached is the lovely wiring. The middle and right switches are fine, the problem is with the left hand one which controls the light at the top of the stairs.

The left switch doesn

 

[Evans Electric]

Hi Mathew , welcome to the Forum, are you an apprentice.?

Couple of questions .

Can't see from your pic. which terminals are which, did the neighbour reconnect it or did it never work properly ?

Don't let the cable colours throw you, red is live and thats it.

The links between switches don't look right to me .

Pull the fuse and see if there is one or two circuits at the switch first.

If neighbour has reconnected it , take them all out and start again .

There are 7 wires to sort.

If its one fuse , find the live feed first and connect it to a C

Touch the others to it and find the two S/wires by seeing the hall light come on etc.

Use your buzzer or tester to identify the strappers at the landing switch.

The remaining two wires should be loop feeds to other switches .

Remember that the 2 way sw. could be 2 strappers and a feed or 2 strappers and a S/wire.

In case you're not sure , strappers go in L1 and L2 ....feeds and S/wires in C

As this is a public Forum you will ,of course switch off the power before each operation!!! And be wearing rubber gloves , a visor ,goggles, hard hat, and most important of all , a high viz jacket, safety boots and brown trousers .

Stick with this thread and we'll sort it .

Oh ...label the cables as you find them if it helps .

 

[ProDave]

The left switch, if it's 2 way switching of the landing light, should have a wire in all 3 of it's terminals.

At the moment, it has wires in only 2 of them.

Turn off the power first, and try moving one of the red wires that's doubled up (presently two wires into one terminal) across to the spare terminal.

It might be as simple as that.

If not, then I'm afraid it's a case of belling out which wire comes from where.

 

[Theorysparky]

If it was me.......

disconnect all wires

pair them up,,,,find out where they go (bell them out)

whats the grey ????

then get the downstairs light working

check for voltage on the others

then you can start to understand where things should go

as we all say to each other

Draw a diagram !!!

---------- Post Auto-Merged at 19:37 ---------- Previous post was made at 19:36 ----------

one other tip

label them as you go white tape is good

 

[steptoe]

If it was me.......disconnect all wires

pair them up,,,,find out where they go (bell them out)

whats the grey ????

then get the downstairs light working

check for voltage on the others

then you can start to understand where things should go

as we all say to each other

Draw a diagram !!!

---------- Post Auto-Merged at 19:37 ---------- Previous post was made at 19:36 ----------

one other tip

label them as you go white tape is good

single black,

possibly the U/S switch wire I woulda thought.

borrowed neutral at the landing light anyone???????

 

[Theorysparky]

do ya think ???

---------- Post Auto-Merged at 19:49 ---------- Previous post was made at 19:47 ----------

so he posted at 10.42

not come back yet to look at any answers

who reckons Mat is still there ????????

 

[kme]

Surrounded by loads of bits of red wire.......or toasted, `cos he failed to follow deke`s "safe isolation" proceedure ?????

 

[Doc Hudson]

do ya think ???---------- Post Auto-Merged at 19:49 ---------- Previous post was made at 19:47 ----------

so he posted at 10.42

not come back yet to look at any answers

who reckons Mat is still there ????????

He was logged back on the forum at 16:10?

Doc H.

 

[Evans Electric]

Oh ...you can tell that ...can you Doc. ?

 

[Theorysparky]

big brother watching !!!!!!!!!

---------- Post Auto-Merged at 22:39 ---------- Previous post was made at 22:38 ----------

i bet he knows which member has been logged on the longest since it started

 

[matthewgordon]

Well this is way over my head. I was thinking that maybe someone would look at the picture and say

 

[steptoe]

Where are you Matthew?

 

[ProDave]

Well this is way over my head. I was thinking that maybe someone would look at the picture and say “Oh easy.. that wire just needs to go there” but I guess that’s impossibly without being there to test things.I’m not in the trade yet, I’ve just started studying.

Thanks anyway for your responses

Matthew

Nobody, not even a genius, can tell, just by looking at 6 identical red wires, which one should go where. Some testing and measuring is almost certainly needed.

Sounds like it's time to call in a local electrician. Hopefully the sort of job he can do on his way home one evening and it might not cost too much.

---------- Post Auto-Merged at 11:05 ---------- Previous post was made at 09:25 ----------

If you want us to try harder, tell us EXACTLY what the middle and right switches do. i.e what lights do they switch, and are either of the lights they switch controlled from another position as well (2 way switching)?

As I said before, the left one controlling the landing light needs a wire in all 3 of it's terminals.

 

[kme]

I was thinking that maybe someone would look at the picture and say

 

[matthewgordon]

Boom... house is burning down... !!!

Don't worry.. my neighbour is going to get someone in instead of me guessing.

Cheers all

 

[paul b b]

As this is a public Forum you will ,of course switch off the power before each operation!!! And be wearing rubber gloves , a visor ,goggles, hard hat, and most important of all , a high viz jacket, safety boots and brown trousers .

.

Rown trousers deke???? Brown???? You are so last week! That H&S reg was changed to orange last monday.

 

[Megaohm7]

Just to make you feel a bit happier - I AM a genius, and I know whats wrong. :slap The red coloured wire(s) are in the wrong holes. That red wire needs to go there, and the other one beside it needs to go from there to there.

Any good now??? :coat

kme, I just knew you would come up with the goods. You was just teasing him wasn't you?