I have 6 120 volt recessed lighting fixtures or "cans" installed in my kitchen. While replacing some burned out bulbs (50W halogen GU10) I ran into a problem with one of the fixtures and had to completely take it out, wiring and all. None of the lights worked after that so I tried to re-install the faulty fixture however now none of the lights work after reinstalling it exactly how I found it.

There are three wires which I reattached exactly how I found them - black, white, and green.

I also checked the circuit breaker and everything was fine there.

I'm at a loss. Are these lights usually wired in circuit? If there is a problem with one fixture do all the lights go out? Also, is there a short term fix? Could I simply connect the wires that would normally connect to the broken fixture and get at least most of my lights back?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hayduke

The black, white and green connect to each fixture, if a bulb goes out, the others remain operational.
You could test for 120 volts at the defefective fixtures location, and be sure it continues on.
If these are 6" cans, you can remove the screws that secure the can to the mount, it will give access to the connections.

These are 3" cans. I'm without a multi-tester so I suppose I'm working a bit blindly here.

When I uninstalled the light fixture there's a chance that the black and white made contact while live. Could this create a problem?

Also, they are on a dimmer switch.

Furthermore, this was a not so well done remodel job done a few years ago. The cause of this problem is that the remodelers fully glued in the recessed fixture into the ceiling to make it properly flush. Now that can is completely glued together which prohibits access to the bulb.

This was meant to be a reply to Stratmando's comment below. Clearly I'm a newbie.

I would remove the dimmer and install a switch or jump to test. When all lighting work is done, reinstall the dimmer.
The dimmer may be bad.

Thanks for your help. I'm borrowing a multi-meter tomorrow. I'll let you know what worked.

Cheers,

Hayduke

Quote:

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There are three wires which I reattached exactly how I found them - black, white, and green.

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Unless this is the last fixture in the series there will be more wires than that. There will be at least two whites and two blacks in all but the last fixture.. Look again, perhaps you missed some wires.

I finally fixed it. It turned out that one of the wires needed to be re-stripped. Definitely a duh moment. Thank you for your help.