changing light fixture

i changed a hanging light fixture and everything went fine and the new light worked. i then changed another light fixture on the same circuit. the only thing i found unusual on the second fixture was that there were two white wires. they were twisted together; however, i do not remember if they were all together with the old fixture. i attached the new fixture and put all three whites together. i then restored power and the fixture works, however, the hanging light that i changed first now does not work at all. is there a logical explanation?? i am thoroughly confused why this happened. i checked all my connections and they are all fine.

 

Tell us all the cables and wires in the 2nd fixture and how they are connected. Is this fixture controlled by the same switch as the 1st fixture? Is it a single switch or are there 2 switches controlling the fixtures?

 

ok, i looked more carefully and this is what i found out. the two fixtures are controlled by different switches, but both switches are in the same box. the first fixture which is not working had only one strand of wires (black, white and ground). the second fixture has two strands of black, white and ground. i now realize that it was a bad idea to put all three whites together. in fact, from what i could tell after looking at it yesterday, was that i was probably about to burn my house down. things were awfully hot. anyway, i reconnected only two whites and capped off the extra black and white wires. the second fixture still works but the first fixture is still not working. what have i done wrong? why are there two strands of wires in this second fixture? any insights? i appreciate any help you can give me. thank you.

 

Hi Pedman:

Your circuit shouldn't be that hard from what you described. two switches controlling two lights. I think you should spend some time trying to figure out where the power is entering the section of the circuit and then locate the wire that goes from the switch box to the lights. Once you have located these it should become simply a matter of connecting the neutral (white wire) from the incoming power to the white wire that is going to each of the fixtures. Then connecting the switched side of each fixture to the switched side of the appropriate switch. You can use a cheap ohm meter to trace your wire once you have the power disconnected. Make sure to check each conductor for voltage before you connect the ohm meter. If the wires are dead tie the black and white together and then go to the light fixture,after checking that all of the wires in the fixture are dead switch the meter to OHMS and watch for the meter to deflect to a very low reading. This will be the set of wire that you shorted together at the switch box. Do this again for the other fixture. This should get you a long way into figuring out how the circuit works. good luck and be careful