Replacing Outdoor Fixture


  #1  
Old 04-16-05, 01:41 PM
Cleveland
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Replacing Outdoor Fixture

i have a porch light that seems to have a short in it as it will only work on a rare occasion and for very brief time. i am hoping the short is in the fixture and not the wiring, but am not sure. its an older home - fuse type breakers with braided wiring with a hot and neutral wire, but no ground. my questions are:
1) i think i know which fuse feeds this fixture, but would like to know for sure before i disconnect it. how do i test for power/no power without cutting power off to the whole house? i do have a GB Instruments model GMT-12A tester, but not sure what setting i need to test.
2) how do i test whether its the wiring or the fixture that has the short?
3) if the fixture is determined to have the short, how (or can i) is the connections made to a newer model that has a ground wire while the house wiring does not?
thanks for any and all help.
 
  #2  
Old 04-16-05, 03:46 PM
J
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(1) Turn on the light (if it still works) and shut off the breakers one at a time until the light goes off. A helper will make this process go a lot faster. If the light doesn't work at the time you test it, it will be much harder to figure out which breaker controls it, so I suggest you shut off the main.

(2) Fixtures are usually pretty inexpensive these days. So unless this fixture is somehow special, I suggest you just go buy a new one. If you don't want to do that, then spend $3 on a simple naked-bulb fixture that you can temporarily install for testing purposes.

(3) Before you remove the old fixture, carefully record the current connections. There are many different possibilities and you don't want to have to figure it all out. Then just connect the new fixture as the old one.

If the problem isn't the fixture, it may be the switch. Switches only cost about fifty cents, so you might as well replace that.
 
 

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