Another fan question

[jacpa48]

I recently posted a question to which I got a good answer that dealt with duplex receptacles missing the tab and the single pole switch that controlled it not providing power to the fan. I installed three fans with a new duplex switch in the circuit and they all worked. On the fourth and final fan, I found a different wiring on the receptacle controlled by the switch. Instead of finding two pair of black, white and ground, I found a single white with the insulation removed in the middle of the wire so that the wire continued on, same for the black. There was also a single black wire hooked to the lower part of the duplex receptacle.

I replaced the old receptacle with a new one, re-attached the white wire to the silver side, the black wire and the single black wire to the gold side. I attached blacks and whites at the pole switch as I had on the other three fans but the fan nor the light worked

My question is, should I have attached only the black wires to the switch and wire nutted the white wires in the switch box (what I have read makes me think I may have a middle-of-run pole switch) :confused: ? I checked the wires at the fan end and got 120v measured between the black and the ground wire. Before I attempt what I think may solve this I want to do a sanity check to make sure I don't burn the fan up by accident.

[John Nelson]

I don't have enough context to understand. I don't remember your other post, and I don't know why you replace the receptacle in the first place. Can you start your story from the beginning?

[jacpa48]

As requested the information is found on 6-19-05 under the title of "Ceiling fan connected to toggle switch " which is on page 2 of the listings posted. Hope that helps. The receptacles had to be replaced because they were part of a 'loop back' circuit I was told, with the tab removed on the receptacle I was getting power to the toggle switch in order to get power to the fan and light. Hope that clarifies the quesiton.

[John Nelson]

Here's the link (http://forum.doityourself.com/showthread.php?t=218462) to the other thread. There's a lot to catch up on.

[jacpa48]

I went back and looked at the receptacle box, the reason I didn't respond for awhile, killed the power. I found three cables in the receptacle box. I think that my problem resolution will be to put a new duplex receptacle in with the tab in place, pigtail all 3 white wires to the silver side and pigtail all 3 black wires to the gold side. Do you think that solution makes since based on this additional information.

[John Nelson]

Yes, that's probably right.

[jacpa48]

Okay, when I looked even closer at the receptacle box I found 4 cables, not the three I thought were there. I attached all the whites together and pigtailed to the silver side, all the blacks together and pigtailed to the black side at the receptacle. I hooked the toggle with the fan black to the togge black and the fan white to the toggle white. I turned the breaker back on, came back to room, the receptacle was working fine, the fan and light were operating with the toggel switch in the 'off' position. When I flipped the toggle to 'on' position it tripped the breaker. I taped the switch so no one can trip it for the present as I am at a loss where the problem may lie now.

[John Nelson]

Did the switch formerly control the receptacle that we have been discussing?

Fully describe all the wiring in the switch box. That's where the problem is.

[jacpa48]

In the box, the receptacle on top had two wires attached. On the top (tab removed) there was a single black wire and a looped white wire that ran back into a wire nut with three other white wires. On the bottom, there was a black looped wire that ran back into wire nut with two black wires and one white wire. Unfortunately, I didn't draw a picture to trace which wires from which cable were run into which wire nut. If you count the cables from left to right, top to bottom, I do know that the single black wire that was with the looped white one came from position 1 (upper left). Sorry I can't provide a mapping for each other wire but I didn't think I was going to run in to this problem. Hope this information will be of some assistance. I can leave the switch out of the circuit if required if wiring the two blacks at the switch in a wire nut and the two whites in wire nut will keep the circuit complete. I can put a blank face plate on and just use the pull chains to turn on the light and fan when needed.

[John Nelson]

I think I asked for the wiring in the switch box, and I think you described the wiring in the receptacle box. Are they in the same box?

[jacpa48]

Sorry, you are correct, I answered the wrong question. In the switch box I have one black and one white that were present in the box plus the black and white pair I ran in for the fan, so there are two black and two white currently connected to the switch (and the ground wires).

[John Nelson]

there are two black and two white currently connected to the switch (and the ground wires).This is wrong. The two black wires should connect to the switch (one to each of the non-grounding screws), and the two white wires should connect only to each other.

[jacpa48]

I was beginning to wonder if that might not fix the problem but gave up before trying it last night. Will apply the fix and let you know the results. Thanks for the help, at least that is the last fan I have to install.

[jacpa48]

:thumbup: Everything is working fine now. Thanks