Bathroom remodel!

the thing you screwed the mounting bracket to.

 

I screwd the mounting bracket to the sheetrock using anchors...there is only a small hole in the wall with the two wires coming out of it.

 

No box ?

 

I doubt it. all I could see was the wires coming out, a stud, and there was what looked like a small metal bar back in there.

this house was built in 1956 and done cheaply.

 

Black wire = hot
white wire = neutral
bare = ground

none of which should touch each other.

 

With no box , what do you ground the grounding pigtail to ?

 

With that old a house, you probably have a box and cloth covered wire (is it just two black wires coming out of the box?). It's also possible you have knob and tube as well.

You might want to consider rewiring the bathroom if that's the case.

 

In the old days, you didn't.

 

its a white and a black wire coming out from the wall. No clue what a knob and tube is

 

I meant now

 

I don't think you do anything, just cap it off. Either way this shouldn't be the issue you are having of the middle light not coming on. Something between the bulb and the wall isn't connecting quite right on that middle one.

 

I bet your right. My porch light had that ground wire that I could not connect either. Im gonna try and take a look at it tonight. Its just frustrating that I took the time and effort to hook it up and it doesnt work right!

 

There is nothing to ground the fixture too because in the knob and tube days, they didn't do grounding so unless you fix that, there's no point in grounding the fixture.

Knob and tube explained. The short answer is that wires were fed between stud bays using ceramic tubes. The knobs are also ceramic and used to hold the wire off the stud to move it up a stud bay or roof rafter. It's often used with the cloth wrapped wire.

With the age of the house, I bet there's a fix of wiring systems and if you plug in one of those testers, I bet you'll find that hot/neutral isn't consistent either.

 

Ya , sorry , I know what knob and tube is , I wasn't sure that it had been established that is what he has .

 

Not for you. OP asked what it was.

 

Cool

 

yup. My electrical experience goes about as far as replacing light switches, plugs, and fixtures...thats it.

 

Pretty unlikely that its K and T in a 50's built. K and T was used until about 1930 around here.

It is also a good bet that anything prior to early 60's (62-ish in my neck of the woods) is not run with a ground wire.

 

a qualified Journeyman Electrician, such as myself, would have to install a box and ground the box, meaning I would have to pull a new homerun, rewire the entire circuit, and maybe even install a ground plate if necessary.

 

bah. we only have one bathroom and I dont have the time or money to do all that extra stuff. We are only gonna be in this house for another 4 years or so then we will be upgrading to something built in atleast 1990