Home Improvement Today?

If we are talking the light switch box, the wires coming up from the bottom are just snipped and sitting in there disconnected.

So it seems in the attic they found a hot and then tied it to the switch? Right since I have no voltage in my switch box at all, only on 1 wire in ceiling box?

 

So u mean wire nut all neutral except 1, restore power and test? If it doesn't work put that 1 back in the mix, remove a different one, restore power and test, and so forth?

 

Sounds like you will need to go on a seek and find mission to find wires?

 

Which is fine. I will go in attic after church...but I guess I am wondering what am I looking for? Since I have no power in switch, how do I wire this properly? I am bummed I didn't observe original wiring. This shouldn't be so complicated but it is cuz I know very little if things aren't straight forward...

 

Agree, if they are switching neutral and it's been known to happen
Having only one of the hot/black wires with voltage makes sense. The one with power should be the line side, no power is load. When you tie the blacks together you're suppling power to rest of the circuit. But if neutral is switched then one black (with power) is supply and the other black is the neutral and is probably going to the switch.

 

Dear Lord I wish I could read this and make sense of it...

 

You need to find out if any wires from the switch go to the ceiling box. Then if they do you need to identify what ones?

 

Sorry, what I'm saying in a nutshell, I'm thinking the black wire without power may be going to the switch and by tying all the blacks together and all whites together you bypassed the switch. This explains why it runs with the switch off.

A recon mission to the attic would be beneficial.

 

Yep the hot starts in the attic and runs to the switch. Trying searching online for end of line wiring. It looks to be feeding hot to the light first running down with a black and white to the switch. See one white wire taped black? It looks like one white and red wire is clipped in box. Do you have a red at the ceiling? Could be setup for dual switching. You can get dual switch in a single gang box. I'd separate all the wires and turn the breakers on. Use a simple tester to see which one is hot. Only one should be.

 

Looks to me like you have a switch leg from the fan box and the wall box is also used as junction for another circuit. Make sure all wires are dead and start figuring out what goes where. Maybe that 3 wire is your switch leg, but maybe not. Someone has certainly been creative. You may have to call in a pro.

 

I've enjoyed following your project. Nice work. Looking forward to seeing more.

 

Only 1 should be hot where? I did this before and the only hot 1 I had was 1 in ceiling box...

May I just say THANK YOU all for helping lead this electrically blind man around!

 

If the hot feeds the ceiling box first, then there should only be one hot in the ceiling and no hot wires in the switch box. I tried to find a wiring diagram but nothing is exact only close. One of the neutrals in the ceiling should be tied to a black wire that goes to the switch. This is close to what you have.

Edit: The first diagram.

 

It's hard to know since none of the white wires is taped black at the ceiling like it should be.

 

Hmmmm...if this is the case we are definitely heading to a lil WTF realm? Sweeeeet

 

The black that is hot should be tied to the white that is in the other romex wire coming into the ceiling box. This should send the hot down to the switch and back up with the switch on. The other black should be tied to the fan/light.

 

I'm still curious about the white and red in the switch box. No other wires in the ceiling box?

 

Correct. Going in attic in about an hour (waiting for wife to take kids somewhere). Determined to get this figured out now!

 

So I toned out the cables. The cable on the right tagged #1 is of course dead and is the one tied to the switch. Upon closer insection I see the red wire is snipped up here in ceiling too.

The cable tagged #2 on left has 120V on black.

So u say I can wire nut the black from #2 to the white of #1? Then the black of #1 (coming back from switch) should be tied to fixture? And then the white of #2 and white of fixture together? Thanks, man!

Also, I do not care too much about the other cable coming up into switch box as its just there dead. I flipped a mystery breaker that has been labeled bedroom hoping to have solved that mystery but it didn't put any AC on it. Since it's never been part of the equation and the 2 cables in ceiling are identified I am disregarding it.

 

Did this and everything seems to be working! Thanks a million for all the input everyone!