Currently i have a light switch that controls the top plug of a 3 prong receptacle. (currently thats where the light for the room is)

I want to install track lighting and have it work off the switch.


The wiring (im clueless with terms here) is as follows:

The switch has 2 wires white and green, connected, and the ground is just hanging there (kinda wonder about that) the box is plastic.

from what i can tell the main power hits the receptacle first then from there hits the light switch.

on the track lighting theres black, green and white.

Now i tried to hook the light to the switch but it didn't work. so do i need to pull wire to the receptacle?

 

Yes, pull a cable to the receptacle. At the receptacle, connect it to the same wires that are connected to the the top of the duplex receptacle. Don't mess up the existing connections, and leave the switch alone.

 

ok ill try that one final question. Does the ground on the track lighting need to be hooked up in order for it to work? also should it be hooked up for saftey?



thanks for you fast reply

 

Safety only.

 

since the bottom plug is live all the time, could i just replace the entire receptial (so that both are live, no tab broken) and pull up the wire from the top part of the plug and connect that directly to the light?


That way the switch would opperate only the light?

and the plug would be live all the time.



reason i ask is fishing a wire will not be easy, its on an outside wall, and the waterbed is in the way of the outlet for easy fishing.

 

You could easily make the entire outlet live, but pulling the wire is probably not possible. or it will be just as tricky.

It all depends on how the circuit is wired.

 

blanx, yes, your proposed plan will work exactly as you want it to.

 

i am having problems, hooking directly to the always live, as well as the swithed plug.


I have used a testers and it shows power, yet i attach the track lighting for a test before i mount everything, and it will not light up, i have 2 differnt lights(track lights) with seperate bulbs, yet it will not turn on.

any ideas?


granted for my test i did not hook up the ground for the light (since above said it was not needed to work, ill hook it up for the actual)

any ideas?

 

could something be bad on the lighting?

 

Tell us exactly what you connected to what and maybe we can spot the problem. Also tell us what kind of tester you have and what wires you tested and where you tested them.

 

i just have a simple neon tester. I tested the receptacles terminal screws. The receptacle has 4 wires because the top is working off the switch and the bottom is on all the time. so i tested the bottom with the neon tester to make sure it had power.


The white is hot i know this because i put 1 end of the neon tester to the white the other to the box and it let up, the black did not light up.

I then screwed the white wire from the light to the white side of the receptacle, and the black to the black, the light does not come on. Again was attached to the bottom (Always hot ).

there is green (ground im guessing) on the light that i did not hook up, as i only wanted to see if the light would come on.

would it be the track? or the wire0in Connector for the tracklighting?

 

I believe that you have the following:

Power coming into the bottom of the duplex outlet. power then goes out to the switch and back on a swutch loop, back into the top of the duplex outlet.

If I am correct, then you cannot do what you want to do, as the sitch has no return. You will have to fish a wire into the switch or into the outlet. Let us know where you want to fish the wire and we can help you with the connections.

Take a look at the duplex outlet. I think you will see the tab connecting each half broken on the hot side. The connecting tab will be intact on the return side. Is this correct?

 

I do not think any more wire is required. If the switch can switch the receptacle, it can also switch the light with the same two wires the switched receptacle used. All you have to do it connect the cable to the lights to the switched hot and the neutral. If the receptacle was formerly switched, then both such wires are obviously present in the receptacle box.

However, I still cannot follow your description of what you did. Before you started, did you say that the receptacle had four wires attached to it? I can understand a connection of a continuous hot wire to one brass screw, a switched hot wire to the other brass screw, and a neutral wire to a silver screw. But what in the world could the fourth wire be? Are you sure you remember exactly how this was originally connected?

Please describe the exact wiring in the switch box before you did anything. How many cables, how many wires in each cable, the colors of the wires, what was hooked where to the receptacle, and what wires may have been present that were not hooked at all to the receptacle.

 

John,

He does not want to run a wire from the outlet, he wants to use the wire from the switch. Read his earlier post about wanting to "pull up the wire from the top part of the plug and connect that directly to the light".

 

plug? I think that means receptacle.

 

right now i'm just trying to see if the stupid light works,

im having my doubts. before i start cutting holes in the celing to install it i wanted to simply hook up the wires and see light.


i can't tell you whats going on with the wires but ill describe it.

the recp. wires have not been changed one bit.

it has on the top, (switched) a white on left side and black on right side.

The bottom has 1 white (not hot) wire on the left and 2 white (the terminal is hot) on the right. one of the whites on the right is twisted (with a wire nut) to a 2 black wires.

now u see why i'm confused?

again im trying to test the light at this point, i hooked it up to live the live recp. (no switch) and it didn't work.

if i am confusing you still let me know and ill take a pick or might just go return this set of lights and try another,

 

ok i just went to another recept, which has no switch so its live all the time, i hooked the tracklighting wire-in connectors wires to the receptacle terminals, it doesn't work,

black to black, white to white, and i tired black to white and white to black.

again theres a green wire on the tracklightings wire in connector, that i didn't hook up,


any ideas why its not working?

 

The track is defective.
The lights are not installled in the track properly.
The bulbs are bad.

 

OK guys thank you so much for your help.


I got it working

the problem was the wirein connector, i had to buy another one. as soon as i did my test work, and i just finished installing it.


and i didn't fish a wire

thanks again.