Power to ceiling junction, but light won't work

Yesterday I installed a new light over our dining table. I tested it after install and it worked fine. Later last night I turned on the light and it sparked and the light went out. I turned off the power and left trouble shooting for this morning.

Here's what I've discovered this morning -

-The breaker wasn't thrown and appears visually fine.
-The black wire may have grounded against the mounting plate - it looks like there is a small cut in the wire insulation. This probably occurred when I was shoving the wires back inside.
-After wrapping the wire in electrical tape and hooking up the light again, it's still not working - no light.
-When testing the wires coming from the ceiling (using multimeter), there is 120V between power and ground and 120V between power and neutral. I checked the light fixture by connecting the wires to an extension cord and it works (so the light fixture or bulbs aren't the problem).
-The light switch looks fine as do all the connections.
-Using an extension cord, I tried to hook-up a desk lamp the ceiling wires and also got no light.
-As far as I can tell, this light/switch is the only outlet on the breaker.

I'm stumped. Any suggestions as to what the problem might be?

Thanks,

-Ryan

 

Is it on a dimmer or a regular switch?

 

If you have 120 volts between hot (switch leg) and neutral the light should work. The desk lamp should work also. Recheck that you are measuring (with a multi meter) 120 volts between the switch leg and the neutral. If so, Remake your connections and try the light again.

 

It was on a dimmer switch. I didn't think that was the issue since I was still getting power to the junction box, but I swapped the dimmer switch out for a regular switch and now it's working again. I suppose the dimmer must have shorted out. Thanks!

 

Yes, dimmers fry easily. The reason you seemed to have 120 volts was there was no load.