I have a hampton bay ceiling fan that has come with the house I am renting. My rental company doesn't seem interested in fixing it, so I am attempting to do it myself. I'm tired of having to use the flashlight on my phone to help my daughter look for clothes from her dresser. :-P

The problem is that 3 of the 4 light sockets do not work. The light fixture takes 120V 40w bulbs, which is what we have always "used" (they remind me of easy-bake-oven light bulbs) and we have bought several brands for it. They just don't work. The don't blow once they are installed, they just never turn on. Finally I got smart at bought a multimeter and sure enough there is no electricity running to the 3 sockets that don't work.

I unscrewed the light portion from the fan portion and the wires all look good and clean. They also look like they were attached in factory, because I cannot seem to get the caps off the wires. (My thought was that maybe the wires needed to be re-twisted together in some areas) Before I go and find a heavy duty tool to take these caps off the wires, I thought I would ask someone.

Does anyone one have any idea what I should be looking for? I find it odd that only 1 light socket works. Thanks for any help.

Regardless of what the cause of the problem is, the next step is to disconnect the sockets (assuming your multimeter test was correct).

Step 0: Turn off the power at the circuit breaker panel!

First, try pulling one or two wires from each factory cap. You can pull fairly hard. If it comes out, you know that the connection there is bad. Pull them all out and replace with regular screw-on wire nuts. Make sure they can handle the 5 wires. Do both the blacks and the whites. Hope this was all it needed.

If the wires don't come out when pulled, you'll have to cut the factory caps off because they are crimped. Actually, I use some heavy pliers and try to open the crimped connection so I can reuse the wires without making them shorter. In other words, the crimped connection will be somewhat oval in shape and you will squeeze the long part of the oval to try and make it round, allowing the wires to slip out. Do not try to reuse this connector... get regular twist-on wire nuts. Make sure they can handle 5 wires at a time.

The sockets should be held mechanically with a nut on a threaded pipe. Remove the nut and pull the socket out. In the unlikely event that the wires are screwed to the socket, check to see if the screws are tight. This might be the problem. More likely, the wires are riveted to the socket and unfixable. I'd get a ceramic socket with attached wires to replace with. Do all 4 while you're at it.

I hope this is clear and helps!
WallyH

I have a hampton bay ceiling fan that has come with the house I am renting. My rental company doesn't seem interested in fixing it, so I am attempting to do it myself. STOP. Call them and make threats. You should not be doing anything with the electrical in a place that you rent.