Lighting, Light Fixtures, Ceiling and Exhaust Fans - Shorted something while trying to install fixture...

Hello folks!
Well, I did something pretty stupid. In my defense I've done it sucessfully in the past.
I made an attempt to install a light fixture (took down the old ceiling fan and replaced it with a simple multiple bulb fixture) without turning the breaker off. I thought the light switch would suffice.
Anyhow, while affixing the fixture to the ceiling just to line it up the black wire (there are three) grounded itself to the fixture and blew something. I thought it was the breaker but it never tripped. I switched it back and forth but still no power to everything on that side of the barn or on that breaker.
Can someone tell me what happened and how to get the power back on? Did I burn out the breaker?
Please help me as it's not my barn (it's a friends) and I promise in the future to always cut the power by switching the breaker off.
May God bless you all for helping out others in need,
Peter

Since it is a barn did you check for GFCI? Did you check the breaker back at the house. You could have tripped an upstream breaker.

Another possibilty is that your brief but high current caused a weak connection to open up. If you have some kind of electrical test equipment, you can figure out whether the hot wire or the neutral wire opened up. Backstab connections (wires poked into holes in the back of receptacles or switches) very commonly fail this way.

Unfortunately, there's no way to find the problem without examining every box on the circuit, both working ones and non-working ones. While you're doing this, you'll be reinforcing your commitment to turning off the breaker next time.

Yet another possibility is that you still have a direct short on the circuit, and that you aren't really turning the breaker back on because it refuses to be turned on. Separate all the wires at the fixture and try to reset the breaker again.

It is clear that you have a switch loop. When a switch loop is involved, connecting all wires by matching color is wrong, and will create a direct short.

Ok, first I have to thank you for most informative posts! Although I don't understand the half of what you guys are saying. :confused:
What's a GFCI? IS there a breaker back at the house? This lady has a pretty elaborate barn in that she actually runs her horses around in there. That's how big this thing is. It's three times the size if my 980 sq.ft. place I live in if not more. She hired me to do some work around the place as I'm a bit strapped finacially.

John, I understand the backstabbing thing. Wouldn't that be most likely to occur right at the light switch on the wall or could that be anywhere on the entire curcuit?

I alreay have all the wires disconnected and separated so that would rule out the breaker contually trying to trip, yes?

I'm not quite sure of all the dynamics in a switch loop but there's a black, white and bare ground coming from the light fixture itself and then there is a black, white, red and ground coming out of the ceiling. Which do I connect to the wires on the light, that is, when I get this short worked out?

I'm so very grateful for your help and I have to apologize for being such an idiot in the first place and soooo ignorant in the second place for not understanding.

Can you help me out a bit more?
God bless,
Peter

Okay, if there is just one wire of each color in the box where the fixture is, then you do not have a switch loop.

The failed connection could exist anywhere on the circuit. Experience suggests that it is much more likely to occur on a white wire than a black wire. That suggests that the switch is not a likely place. But the switch itself could have failed.

Do you have any kind of electrical test instrument at all? If so, what?

Do you have any kind of book on home wiring? If not, check out a few from your public library and read them.

A GFCI is a ground fault circuit interruptor. They come in two kinds: a GFCI breaker (in the panel) and a GFCI receptacle (usually in a bathroom, kitchen, garage, or outbuilding--like a barn). You could very well have a tripped GFCI. Look all around the barn for a receptacle with "TEST" and "RESET" (or "T" and "R") buttons on it. There may be more than one. Press the "R" or "RESET" button on all you find.

By the way, unless you are in some unregulated remote countryside, the work you are doing is almost certainly illegal since you are not an electrician.

Hey John, thanks again!
I had no idea that just putting a light fixture is illegal. Well, I can see how if you have a bunch of boneheads like me trying to wire a house :)
I have a digital volt meter and she's got those GFCI's all over the place.
WOW, this means there's hope for me yet. All the handy work I do, I garantee. That means if I can't fix it I have to get someone to do it and if I have to hire an electrician then it's on me.
Ok, one last question and I'll hope to leave you alone...
Do you think the switch being bad interupted all the fixture's on that circuit? Could it do that?
Again, I can express enough the gratitude I have for you assisting me.
God bless John,
Peter

Okay. I overspoke. Simple fixture replacement should not require an electrician. I was thinking of something more complicated, like installing a fixture where there was none before.

A bad switch should only cause problems for the fixture(s) controlled by that switch. However, sometimes power passes through a switch on its way somewhere else, so a bad connection at a switch could cause trouble elsewhere.

Press all those GFCI reset buttons first.

If that fails, use your voltmeter to measure for voltage between black and white, between black and ground, between red and white, and between red and ground. Do these tests (carefully) with the breaker on, and with the switch both on and off.

Thanks John, I'll post back with the results.
She lives about 100 miles away so I'll post later on in the week.
Thank you so very much and may God bless,
Peter

Ok, so I went over there and on the way over I was praying profusely for God to perform a miracle cuz I didn't want to have to pay an electrician to fix my mistake.
Anyhow, I went over armed with a printout of all the advice given to me and was ready to go through the steps when I went in the room and flipped the switch. Guess what? The power went on, the light went on. EVERYTHING WAS ON! I didn't have to do a thing except to screw the fixture to the ceiling.
Now, can someone tell me what just happened? I think it's nothing short of a miracle!
Thanks so much for your help John and joed and may God bless! I know He did me!!
Peter

Owner may have discovered the tripped gfci and reset it not knowing it fixed the problem you were working on.