Can any of you electrical guys give me a hand on this one? I've fiddled away the past 3 hours trying to replace this "simple" one pole/combination light switch for my basement after the toggle fell apart. Picked a new one up today from Home Depot - Leviton brand is the same as before. The old Leviton was probably 55 years old. There are 3 separate basement lights on this circuit (I assume in parallel) and currently only one of those 3 works. It's better than I had this morning with 0 for 3.
Leviton switch wiring - 2nd diagram down
Leviton "tech" manual
I started out wiring the 3 black/3 white leads exactly as they came off the old switch. That didn't work to my surprise. On disassembly 3 leads were stuffed on the input neutral silver screw to the 0.25w pilot "indicating" light. In modern circuits those leads would probably be soldered/joined back in the box with a single lead going to the switch. Trying to get contact with 3 leads on a single screw is difficult, though I think I did that ok...the pilot does work.
The black "hot" 120v lead is where it should be at the input to the switch (black screw). What's confusing is that the wiring diagram suggests that a black wire is on either side of the switch. And that's NOT how it came apart. A white wire was on the output/load side of the old switch (brass screw). And it didn't work when I first wired in the new one. So per the diagram I moved the 2nd black wire off the neutral/silver screw....to the brass screw. And now there's 3 white wires on the silver/neutral screw. The green "ground" screw has a black wire attached...though when first taking it apart it had a white wire. No green wires - just 3 black and 3 white - and no bare copper ground attached to the original switch (could be a white or black wire too).
OK. So what do I do to troubleshoot this further? I have power to 1 of 3 lights. The red pilot line is on as it's supposed to be. I took some voltage, amp, and ohm readings across the various wires/screws and nothing seemed out of place. I took the last white wire off the silver screw to get better contact on the other two, and then I lost the only light I had. That made no sense. Shouldn't I be able to leave only one white wire attached and have that light work? And then do that for the other 2 wires for the other 2 lights?
40 years ago I could work my way through a transistorized control circuit down to the component level (NPN, PNP, etc.) computing 3 phase AC volts, amps, and ohms across/through any component. And today I can't even fumble my way through a 120 Vac light circuit!!....sheesh. Spent the last hour googling various light circuits and videos for anything I missed.
Leviton switch wiring - 2nd diagram down
Leviton "tech" manual
I started out wiring the 3 black/3 white leads exactly as they came off the old switch. That didn't work to my surprise. On disassembly 3 leads were stuffed on the input neutral silver screw to the 0.25w pilot "indicating" light. In modern circuits those leads would probably be soldered/joined back in the box with a single lead going to the switch. Trying to get contact with 3 leads on a single screw is difficult, though I think I did that ok...the pilot does work.
The black "hot" 120v lead is where it should be at the input to the switch (black screw). What's confusing is that the wiring diagram suggests that a black wire is on either side of the switch. And that's NOT how it came apart. A white wire was on the output/load side of the old switch (brass screw). And it didn't work when I first wired in the new one. So per the diagram I moved the 2nd black wire off the neutral/silver screw....to the brass screw. And now there's 3 white wires on the silver/neutral screw. The green "ground" screw has a black wire attached...though when first taking it apart it had a white wire. No green wires - just 3 black and 3 white - and no bare copper ground attached to the original switch (could be a white or black wire too).
OK. So what do I do to troubleshoot this further? I have power to 1 of 3 lights. The red pilot line is on as it's supposed to be. I took some voltage, amp, and ohm readings across the various wires/screws and nothing seemed out of place. I took the last white wire off the silver screw to get better contact on the other two, and then I lost the only light I had. That made no sense. Shouldn't I be able to leave only one white wire attached and have that light work? And then do that for the other 2 wires for the other 2 lights?
40 years ago I could work my way through a transistorized control circuit down to the component level (NPN, PNP, etc.) computing 3 phase AC volts, amps, and ohms across/through any component. And today I can't even fumble my way through a 120 Vac light circuit!!....sheesh. Spent the last hour googling various light circuits and videos for anything I missed.