3 way or ?

I currently in the process of remodeling a house. The kitchen lights were controled from three locations. I removed one of the switches and had been operating from 2 of the switches. I am now atttempting to wire the third back in and of course it isn't going so well. All three switches are three way with a red, white & black wire. I have tried various configuration at the switch with the most common effect of tripping the breaker. ALl reference I see to three way switches seems to be limited to 2 switches.

Help
kcsmith

 

This may help.

http://homedoctor.net/tipsfaq/2.3.html

 

First things first, you cannot have thre three way switches controlling your lights. One of them would have to be a four way switch (easily spotted by the fact that it has four wire terminals instead of three.) If this is not the case, then you aren't looking at what you think you are. Unfortuately, this oe is hard to diagnose sight unseen. If you could disconnect power to the circuit, then run a continuity test on all wires to determine what wires go from which switch to which it would be very helpful. If you are tripping the breaker you are either tieing into a different circuit or accidntally tieing a neutral to a hot via the switch (bear in mind that the white wire isn't alwyas a neutral in a switching system, at least when romex or MC cable is being used.)