Okay so normally i would have shut off the breaker when installing a new fan instead I made sure the light switches were off and tested the wiring in the ceiling to make sure nothing was hot.

Took down the old generic round light and found both a red and black in the ceiling, black not being used, red feeding the light. There are three wall switches and all other rooms had been wired for fans/lights. So wiring I hooked up the ground wires, neutrals, then black to black (not previously used) and red to the blue fan wire. Put it all together, flipped the switch the light came on. Flipped the fan switch and then went to pull the chain but it was stuck so shut it all back off and undid a few pieces to free up the pull chain.

The second I pulled the fan pull chain, with the wall switch off, the whole bedroom went dark and breaker was tripped.

So, makig sure the switches were off, i shut off other lamps that were on and went to reset the breaker. It's a GFI breaker and at first I couldn't get it to the OFF position. Finally went after a few pushes. Switched it to ON and nothing, would not stay in the ON position at all...

Of course I'm doing this late night as I cant sleep and cant take the fan apart until tomorrow when Ill have some light in that room, but when I do what should I be looking for?

Trying to figure out if it could be the fan/light wiring (maybe something became disconnected) or could the breaker be bad?

Thanks!

 

It sounds like the black wire in the ceiling wasn't being used for a reason. Were both the red & black hot? That same exact scenario happened when I was living in a 3 family house. The bathroom on the top floor was being redone. The breaker panels were on my level. One of the workers found a red wire & a black just like you did. He connected all of them & it kept blowing the breaker. I told him disconnect the red & tape it. After that it worked fine. Connect the red to the black & blue in the fan, all three together. That should fix it.

 

Also let us know what the wiring is at the switches. If possible, since the power is off, pull the switch from the box and post a couple of good pictures showing the wiring. http://www.doityourself.com/forum/el...rt-images.html

 

I am wondering why a bedroom lighting circuit would be on a GFCI breaker.

 

Did you change to a fan rated box to properly support the fan?

 

Pcboss yes the box in the ceiling was already rated for a fan. The previous owner took all the nice fixtures in the house and replaced them with cheap cheap globes. I made sure all of the screws into the joist were tight that sucker wasn't moving.

CasualJoe The bedroom circuit also seems to be running the master bath wiring which has no GFI outlets (3 outlets above a double sink, 1 below, one on a wall near the bath) in fact there are no GFI outlets in the whole house. There are only 2 GFI breakers in the panel which are both labeled for the bedrooms, nothing for the kitchen and no GFI outlets there either.

Pulpo both the red and black were hot. I'll take the switches and fan down now and post some pictures. Thnaks for the help!

 

An obvious code violation if true. Bath receptacles should be on a dedicated circuit. What size are the breakers?What about outside, basement, garage, kitchen, behind things that haven't been moved in years? Are you sure the breakers aren't AFCI? What is the age of the house?

 

Attachment 48661Attachment 48662

The center switch with the red and black was working the light previously. The switch on the left (2black wires) and one on the right (2red wires) didn't work anything. We were trying to track down which outlet they might turn on.

The GFI breaker in the panel is a 15amp

 

The line coming in into the switch box on the left splits off with black going to the left switch (with the two black) and the red going to the center switch which controlled the light (1 red 1 black)

There are two other lines in the switch box. One 4 wire with the red going to the first switch and black going to a pigtail of blacks...then the bottom of the first switch has a piece of red that also goes into that balck cluster feeding the third wire set which is just black/white/copper...all of the switches pigtail into the black cluster and then all the neutrals are tied together and the grounds.

 

I know it's me...the breaker reset and all power is working with the ceiling fan disconnected. Found light switch 1 works an outlet we had behind some furniture.

But switches 2 and 3 i still think feed the ceiling recepticle...am i way off...could there be an issue with the ceiling fan itself i wonder? The light had worked and then everything went out when i pulled the chain for the fan...

 

I've been following the thread. It appears you had trouble with the pull chain in the first place. That tells me there is something amiss in the fan from the get go. It could be in the physical switch in the fan itself.

 

The ceiling fan could be defective.