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charissejenkins · Mar 18, 2008, 06:45 AM

Hello how to explain the situation--here goes my dad tried to install my ceiling fan he had taken the light down before I had turned the power off. Any way a big spark came out of this black wire. I then turned off the power. He continued to work and put up the ceiling fan before he connected it all he wanted to see if it was working. When I turned on the power the neither the fan or the lights came on. He had forgotten to bring his electrical tester(or whatever you call it) so he used some plyers to see if it would spark and it would not.

He then went out and bought a cheap tester and it indicated power? But we could not get the fan to work. Subsequently we put my old light back up and now that does not work either. My question to him was could the spark at the beginning have caused a short somewhere. He said the most it should have done is blow the fuse which it did not do. He now thinks since it is three way maybe something is not connected because he was not thinking about that when he tried to install the fan or reinstalled the original light fixture.

I just want to know if anyone thinks something could have been ruined when it sparked that would need an electrician?

Stratmando · Mar 18, 2008, 07:23 AM

If you turned Main off then back on, you still need to locate the individual breaker,
Next would be to verify power out of all fuses/breakers.
Possible a three way switch may have been destroyed? Remove Both 3 ways should have power to at least 1 of them. Double check fuses. Good Luck

ceilingfanrepair · Mar 23, 2008, 09:17 PM

It sounds like he most likely did not hook it back up correctly. See:

Ceiling fan wiring - Ceiling Fans N More

And if that does not address your specific wiring, tell us what wires you have and have your voltage tester ready.

charissejenkins · Mar 26, 2008, 05:29 AM

Thanks for your replies.

I am not sure how to reply to specific answers but here is what happened since my first post. They have since decided that my 3way dimmer switch was not working properly and replaced it now my light does work, but not like it use to. My switch use to work if you turned it on/off when coming in my home and when you turned it on/off in the hallway regardless of where you turned it off/on. Now it will only work if the switch in the hallway is in the up position. So we have to watch where we turn it off because when we come in we may not be able to turn it on. Any Ideas??

Stratmando · Mar 26, 2008, 06:28 AM

2 of the wires are reversed on the 3 way dimmer/switch. The odd wire goes to the center or common screw or wire.
One 3 way common terminal is always hot, and the other 3 way the common goes to the light.

ceilingfanrepair · Mar 26, 2008, 12:53 PM

Either that, or when they replaced it, they replaced it with a non-three way switch/dimmer.

donf · Mar 26, 2008, 01:46 PM

OR, when your dad hooked the wiring together, instead of connecting the white wire from the wall switch to the black wire of the fan's fixture, he just connected all whites together.

Take a look at the wiring in the ceiling. You should have a B/W source wire. The Black connects to the switch in the wall. The white wire that is returned from the switch, should have a small amount of black or red tape on it to signify that this is a Hot wire. That white wire with the black tape on it connects to the black on the fan. The White from the fan connects to the White from the supply in the ceiling and of course connect all of the ground wires connect together.

Next turn the breaker from the main panel box to the fan on then try your wall switch and see what happens.