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tjd_88

Pendant lights not working

6 years ago

I've replaced two pendant lights and neither are working. The new fixtures have a white wire, one black wire and a ground wire. The electrical box has two red wires. The previous fixtures worked using the two red wires (previous fixtures did not have a ground wire). I've installed the new fixtures attaching to the two red wires and the ground wire to the bracket. A voltage detector indicates there is power in the socket of the light fixtures. I've pulled out the tab in the socket to ensure contact with the bulb but still no luck. The light switch is not a dimmer. Any idea why the lights are not working?

Comments (9)

  • 6 years ago

    You have 2 lights but only one junction box for them? And that box has 2 red wires? Any way I can think of to figure out your description, none of them makes any sense, unless your house was wired by an idiot. Even then it barely does. Are you in the USA? Somewhere else?

    Please try posting some photos.

  • 6 years ago


    IneOneIneOne



  • 6 years ago



  • 6 years ago

    One box per light fixture. I was trying to explain that both weren't working. First photo above is of the box - two red wires which were used for the previous working light fixture. In the box there is also two sets of wires (black and white) with blue wire caps on. I didn't touch these as they weren't used with the previous fixture so I assumed they wouldn't be need for the current one. I am in Canada, house built in 2008. I will add a couple more photos...

  • 6 years ago



  • 6 years ago


    light fixture

  • 6 years ago

    tjd_88-

    I interpret your pictures to mean that you have a separate box for each of the two new fixtures.

    Those two red wires in your first photo do not appear to be normal gauge for Romex cable. They look like lighter gauge fixture wires that have been inserted into heat shrink sleeves for protection for some reason. What are these wires attached to in the box? I hope you aren't going to tell me they are coming into the box from somewhere else. One thought is that these are short lengths of wire that are wire nutted to the actual cable wires into the box to extend them, but that's pretty weird.

    Please look further in that box and report back.

    Finally, looking at the second photo and the wire nut on the left: Is the fatter wire a black wire with some white paint on it, or a white wire that someone has colored black at the end (which would often indicate that it's coming from the switch)?

    I suspect your problem has to do with a loose connection involving the two red wires, or that the switch wire got connected up wrong when you were redoing this. Did you take a picture at the start of this project to make sure you rewired them identically to what you started with? Because they presumably run off the same switch, a failure to wire correctly in either box could explain why they both don't work.


  • 6 years ago

    It turns out the red wires were for a halogen transformer (the previous fixture used halogen bulbs). I removed them and was left with a black and white wire - easy from there. The lights are now working. Thanks for your responses.

  • 6 years ago

    Great! :-)