So, this should not be so puzzling, but I have invested hours now in troubleshooting and thus am looking for some tips.
The short story is that I replaced the light in my garage and a couple of outlets on the same circuit quit working. When this first happened about 6 weeks ago, I put a copper crimp on the 5 neutrals and it seemed to fix it. I now find that the outlets are not working and don't know when they stopped working. I went out and fooled with the neutrals behind the light again but nothing will ressurect these outlets.
Here's what I have learned:
The circuit box this light is attached to has 4 house wires in it, plus 1 wire for the light (hence 5 neutrals).
Wire 1 has red wire from switch, black (hot) wire to switch, neutral and ground. I know that is probably "wrong", but that's how it is. There are a lot of weird wires in this house.
Wire 2 has hot black from service, white neutral and ground.
Wire 3 has black, white and ground is connected to another switched light "upstream".
Wire 4 has black, white and ground and is connected to an upstream outlet that does not work.
Wire 5 is the garage light.
There are some other lights on this circuit that apparently do not go trough this junction. They all work fine.
The connections are as follows:
Wire 1 black, 2 black and 4 black are connected together.
Wire 1 red, 3 black and 5 black are connected together.
Wire 1-5 neutral are connected together.
Results:
Everything works fine except the outlets on Wire 4. They do not work. A multitester shows 91 volts on the Wire 4 circuit, possibly not full voltage on load, but I don't know how to test it under load. Disconnecting Wire 4 removes the 91 volts.
I have tried pretty much everything, even connecting the Wire 1 service directly to Wire 4 with no change of results.
I am pretty sure all that has been touched on this circuit is this new light, but cannot explain why the upstream outlets no longer work. Does anyone have any tips to troubleshoot what may be going on here?
Thanks in advance.
The short story is that I replaced the light in my garage and a couple of outlets on the same circuit quit working. When this first happened about 6 weeks ago, I put a copper crimp on the 5 neutrals and it seemed to fix it. I now find that the outlets are not working and don't know when they stopped working. I went out and fooled with the neutrals behind the light again but nothing will ressurect these outlets.
Here's what I have learned:
The circuit box this light is attached to has 4 house wires in it, plus 1 wire for the light (hence 5 neutrals).
Wire 1 has red wire from switch, black (hot) wire to switch, neutral and ground. I know that is probably "wrong", but that's how it is. There are a lot of weird wires in this house.
Wire 2 has hot black from service, white neutral and ground.
Wire 3 has black, white and ground is connected to another switched light "upstream".
Wire 4 has black, white and ground and is connected to an upstream outlet that does not work.
Wire 5 is the garage light.
There are some other lights on this circuit that apparently do not go trough this junction. They all work fine.
The connections are as follows:
Wire 1 black, 2 black and 4 black are connected together.
Wire 1 red, 3 black and 5 black are connected together.
Wire 1-5 neutral are connected together.
Results:
Everything works fine except the outlets on Wire 4. They do not work. A multitester shows 91 volts on the Wire 4 circuit, possibly not full voltage on load, but I don't know how to test it under load. Disconnecting Wire 4 removes the 91 volts.
I have tried pretty much everything, even connecting the Wire 1 service directly to Wire 4 with no change of results.
I am pretty sure all that has been touched on this circuit is this new light, but cannot explain why the upstream outlets no longer work. Does anyone have any tips to troubleshoot what may be going on here?
Thanks in advance.