Hello,

I have a major problem. The vanity light in my bathroom a few days ago just fell off the wall. It was cheap wood and the guy who we bought the house from put it in.

Some things are strange in the house like the hallway plugin only will work with nightlights and such, vacuum will not work.

In the bedroom only one outlet works, the others might work nitelights but that is it.

At any rate the bathroom has 3 black wires and 3 white wires. Someone tried to help me hook up the new vanity light we purchased.

He was confused why it had so many wires, the unit we purchased was on sale and it didn't have the instructions, must have been returned. It only has a white and a black wire and the ground.

He tried many combinations to get it to work but what happens is if you connect the new vanity light and turn back on the breaker, the light works... in the off position... if you turn it to the on position the circuit breaker breaks and all of the lights in the bathroom (and the hall) go out. Any other combination and nothing works. If you disconnect the wires going to the new vanity light then the bathroom fan+light and the hall light works.

I try to connect the new vanity light and same issue, it breaks the circuit breaker and doesn't work.

Any ideas?

Well it sounds like the previous owner wasn't an electrician. We need to start very basic because things may be wrong and I don't know your skill level so I'll ask a lot of questions if that's Ok with you. When you talk about the wires are you looking at the box behind the light or the switch box? Do all the blacks and all the whites come together? If your breaker is popping when you turn on the switch you have a short some where. Once we get this straightened out I'm sure we can do some repair on the those outher outlets to. Back to you.

Ha, actually the previous owner was supposed to be an electrician, I don't think he was a very good one though.

At any rate, I will take a look at it when I get home but basically we tried every combination and it didn't work. I took the old one off but don't remember how it was hooked up.

I need to get it fixed. I will post later.

There are several electrians here who can help if I'm not around. This should be simple for most of use.

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Originally Posted by southernil

Hello,

I have a major problem. The vanity light in my bathroom a few days ago just fell off of the wall. It was cheap wood and the guy who we bought the house from put it in.

Some things are strange in the house like the hallway plugin only will work with nightlights and such, vaccum will not work.

In the bedroom only one outlet works, the others might work nitelights but that is it.

At any rate the bathroom has 3 black wires and 3 white wires. Someone tried to help me hook up the new vanity light we purchased.

He was confused why it had so many wires, the unit we purchased was on sale and it didn't have the instructions, must have been returned. It only has a white and a black wire and the ground.

He tried many combinations to get it to work but what happens is if you connect the new vanity light and turn back on the breaker, the light works... in the off position... if you turn it to the on position the circuit breaker breaks and all of the lights in the bathroom (and the hall) go out. Any other combination and nothing works. If you disconnect the wires going to the new vanity light then the bathroom fan+light and the hall light works.

I try to connect the new vanity light and same issue, it breaks the circuit breaker and doesn't work.

Any ideas?

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The previous answers may be incorrect depending on how the wiring was done. It sounds like there is a single two wire cable going directly from the lite to the switch in which case you should not connect all blacks and all whites together because if you do, when you hit the switch you cause a short circuit.( sounds like the scenario) In this case you need to separate all the wires and using a meter, determine what wires go where. If the switch is wired as stated earlier you should connect the white wire from the swwitch to your hot source and the black wire from your switch ditrectly to the light. Too hard to tell from here what has been done for sure but I'd bet lots I've got it nailed- I am an electrician.Good luck.

Selectrick, if you go back and read the previous posts there are no answers to be incorrect. Several questions have been given to Southern and we are waiting to hear back. The rest of your answer looks like good detective work.

1 set from switchbox is probably black and white,
At lightbox, one from switchbox, 1 is line, ond other to gfI?
Guessing, I would think you should have 2 white wire connected and have pigtail(w/ short piece of white wire, to go to vanity white.
Other white which goes to 2 blacks(line in and to gfi?)
Then you should have a lone Black wire which will go to to the vanity Black.
Connect all grounds.
Good Luck.