[trillen88]

Hi,

First off, thanks in advance for reading my post and I apologize for my ignorance regarding electrical and home improvement in general.

I recently removed an old lighting fixture in hopes of replacing it with a new one I bought from Ikea.

In the electrical box, there is 1 black wire (I believe this is the hot), 2 white wires bundled together (I believe this is neutral), and then 2 black wires bundled with a white wire (I believe these are grounds?).

In my attempt to install the fixture, I attached the black fixture wire to the 1 black wire, the white fixture wire to the 2 white bundled wires, and the two fixture green wires to the black/white bundled wires. After turning the power back on from the main circuit, I turn the switch on and the light turns on for a brief second and then the circuit breaker trips.

I also tried to attach photos of the electrical box wires and the fixture wires, but due to the image upload size restrictions, I had to shrink them down and make them very small. But hopefully you might be able to make it out.

What am I doing wrong?

Any help and feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[theatretch85]

First off, nothing other than a bare wire or green wire should be considered a ground. From the pictures, it looks like you have some older wiring and probably dont have a ground, or the wire has a metal jacket and the box itself is grounded. Everything but your ground sounds correct, disconnect the ground wire from the bundle of blacks and white wire, check to see if the box is grounded.

Also, save your images as a JPG and you can post bigger pictures, use a program like IrfanView (google it) to shrink pics, etc.

 

[A.W. Davis]

http://www.selfhelpandmore.com/swit...tch/single-switch-power-source-at-fixture.php

From what you are describing....it sounds like the power source is in the fixture box.

 

[PaliBob]

Also, save your images as a JPG and you can post bigger pictures, use a program like IrfanView (google it) to shrink pics, etc.

Good Advice, always publish as jpg.

Agreed IrfanView is the way to go. A while back when PC magazine still had a print issue the PC staff was polled for their #1 Choice for a photo viewer and IrfanView won hands down.
http://irfanview.com/

I resized your pics as jpg using IrfanView

Almost all the older light fixtures >20 years or so did NOT have a ground wire and they worked fine. I have not seen any fixture that had a ground wire that was not green. There are other ways that a box can be grounded but from the photo your box like millions of others may have a ground path through a conduit or other path. The light will work without a ground. It just needs the white and black wire.

Take theat's advice and disconnect your fixture ground wire from wires in
the box because they are NOT grounds. Let us know what happens.

Read the disclaimer at the top of the Electrical page:
http://www.diychatroom.com/f18/announcements/

 

[220/221]

I attached the black fixture wire to the 1 black wire, the white fixture wire to the 2 white bundled wires, and the two fixture green wires to the black/white bundled wires.

:jester: Why don't people ask first or simply look at the way the old fixture was wired?:jester:

Heh heh. The black/white bundles wires are 120V power. You sent 120volts into the metal parts of the fixture :laughing:.

Turn off power, tuck those black/whites back into the box. Make sure the connections under the wirenut are goo because that is poewer going out to other areas of your house.

Fixture black to single black.

Fixture white to whites.