Troubleshooting a Ceiling Fan Connection


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Old 12-04-16, 03:38 PM
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Question Troubleshooting a Ceiling Fan Connection

Hello, and thanks in advance for your time. I had a ceiling fan with light that I pulled from the living room when I replaced with a newer unit. I pulled the fan from a bedroom and installed the spare from the living room, it won't control of either fan or light.

The wiring is 3 wire (black, white, ground), and the fan (old and new) has black, white and blue wires. I'm connecting to a standard switch, wanting control via both pull chains like the original.

I don't see anything different between the old and new fan, same number of wires for the same functions. When I leave the blue from the fan disconnected, the fan and light works, but the pull chain changes both light and fan simultaneously. When blue and black from the fan are both connected to the same black line to the switch, nothing happens at the fan.

This is basically the setup I'm following:
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Old 12-04-16, 05:01 PM
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Welcome to the forums! Your set up is not like the one pictured, since you have a switch to deal with. Where does the power enter? At the fan or at the wall switch?
 
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Old 12-04-16, 05:42 PM
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Power comes in at the wall switch, then out to the ceiling fixture, 3 wires to the fixture (black, white, ground).
 
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Old 12-05-16, 02:28 AM
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That's good and simple. The black wire is connected to the black and blue of the ceiling fan. White and ground are matched to like in the canopy. If you have a multimeter, check the voltage at the black wire entering the ceiling box to ground with the switch on. If you have power there, and nothing happens when the black and blue are connected, you possibly have a bad fan or the switch is not turned on, or the pull chains are not activated properly.
 
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Old 12-05-16, 03:31 PM
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I double-checked and both black and blue are connected to the black wire, and it's getting current. ACV 200 is ~123. It's frustrating, since I know it worked when I disconnected. But then again, I did completely disassemble and run three new main wires. My father in law cut the wires instead of disconnecting the nuts. So they were too short to just splice to...
 
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Old 12-05-16, 04:05 PM
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IF you are getting 123 volts from black to ground, you may have a neutral that is not securely connected.You say you ran a new cable. From the switch? You may need to post pictures of the switch pulled out of the box (power removed) as well as all the wiring in the box. http://www.doityourself.com/forum/el...your-post.html
 
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Old 12-05-16, 04:22 PM
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Bingo. The switch and wiring from it are original 3 wire. The neutral in the fan came loose, so I had to partially disassemble it again and fasten the wire. It works now! Thanks for the advice!
 
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Old 12-05-16, 05:04 PM
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Glad you got it working.
 
 

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