Hello,

I recently bought a Chandelier and am trying to install it in the dining room. I have tried every combination of wiring and I still can't get it to work. In the ceiling, there are two black wires, two white wires, one red wire, and ground wires. The blacks and whites were already twined together at the ends. My house was built in 1894. The chandelier has three wires: a Hot Fixture Wire, a Neutral Fixture Wire, and a ground wire. Here is the combination I have tried.

1) Red to Hot Fixture Wire, White to Neutral Fixture Wire, and Ground to ground. This won't even turn the light on.
2) Red to Neutral Fixture Wire, White to Hot Fixture Wire, and Ground to ground. This won't even turn the light on.
3) Black to Hot Fixture Wire, White to Neutral Fixture Wire, and ground to ground. This turns the light on but the wall switch no longer works.
4) Black to Neutral Fixture Wire, White to Hot Fixture Wire, and ground to ground. This turns the light on again but the wall switch still does not work.

After I have done #3 and #4, I tried sticking the Red with both the black and white ones hoping the wall switch would then work, but it still did not.

I am truly stuck and any help you could give me would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Open switch box and let us know how many wires are in it. Color of wires and layout.

Chuck

This is a silly question, but how was the old fixture wired?

You did not take the splices apart, did you? If so WHY?

I will all but guarantee you that connecting the fixture to the white pair and to the red in the ceiling will work. From how I read it this is how you did it in #1. As long as you did not break the splices in the ceiling box this SHOULD have worked.

Hi Stan,

Thank you for your response. When I did the #1 combination, the light turned on for about 5 seconds, and then there was this buzzing sound and the light then shut off. The #1 combination would not work after that but the #3 and #4 still work so I know I did not break the light. Any more help you could give would be grateful.

Thanks.