troubles with flourescent fixture not working

Pdoug · 10-09-2011, 01:43 PM

Hi all, I am new to this site, and appreciate all the help. My mom has a little 2 ft flourescent fixture over her sink that stopped working. We replaced the starters and could sometimes see a little blue light on the end of them when jiggling them so I assumed the switch had power. We took the fixture down and hard wired it to an extension cord and the thing lit up right away. I have put an ohm meter to the old black and white wires coming out of the ceiling from the switch and at 50 volt setting with the switch on, the needle jumped all the way to the right. Switch off, no reading. I'm not sure what to do now, very frustrating. The green wire from the fixture was not connected and I read that that was ok, it worked like that before.
Thanks so much.

Snav · 10-09-2011, 01:50 PM

Have you reconnected the light?

I would do this next - cut the ends of the wire supply by 3/4" and re-strip them - get new, fresh wire exposed. Connect the light again and see if it works. Connections can slowly come lose over years for a variety of reasons - and corrosion can also form in places that are humid (like kitchens and bathrooms) which can cause problems.

It's possible that with a removal and fresh connections you've addressed the problem already.

biggles · 10-09-2011, 02:05 PM

contacts on switch is worn

Pdoug · 10-09-2011, 02:12 PM

I will try that in a little bit, I wondered if resistance had built up In the wiring but didn't know how to check that on this old ohm meter. Should I just leave the green wire folded up out of the way?

Jim Port · 10-09-2011, 02:22 PM

For safety you should connect the ground wire if your wiring is grounded.

Pdoug · 10-09-2011, 03:33 PM

Ok I cut and stripped 3/4" from house wiring and rewired leaving green hanging cause I have nothing to attach it to. Still nothing and I can't get the starters to even light up now. Heres a pic. I thought I had ruled out the switch cause of my test with the ohm meter switch off no reading at ceiling wiring, switch on a reading. I guess I'm gonna pull the fixture down and bench test it again with the extension cord. Here's a pic of what I'm working with. Thanks everyone!

Jim Port · 10-09-2011, 03:36 PM

That is an old fixture. The silver cylinders are starters. They may need to be replaced.