Rewiring old ligthing fixture with pull switch


  #1  
Old 09-01-13, 08:10 AM
B
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: USA
Posts: 3
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
Rewiring old ligthing fixture with pull switch

I have a very old lighting fixture, that I would like to keep. But it needs to be rewired. The old wires are starting to fray. This didn't seem like a bit issue at first but I can't find info on a lighting fixture like this.

It has five bulbs and a pull at the bottom of the fixture. Pull once and one light goes on. Pull a second time three lights go on. Pull a third time all five lights come on.



I went to the home improvement store but I could not find new light sockets, or anything that seemed to be the switch part. And I don't really know anything about the wiring part. Where can I get replacement parts for this? Is this something that is to much to chew off for someone new to this?
 
  #2  
Old 09-01-13, 09:22 AM
ray2047's Avatar
Member
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: USA
Posts: 29,711
Upvotes: 0
Received 15 Upvotes on 13 Posts
How many wires on the switch? Can you give us a close up of the switch and wiring?
 
  #3  
Old 09-01-13, 01:10 PM
Nashkat1's Avatar
Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: USA
Posts: 7,458
Upvotes: 0
Received 6 Upvotes on 5 Posts
Welcome to the forums!

What a nice looking old fixture. I can see why you'd want to keep it, especially with that useful and unusual switching arrangement.

Is this part of a hanging fixture or a floor lamp? Is it right side up or upside down in your picture? (It looks like a hanging fixture that's right side up, but just wanted to make sure.

No, I don't think this should be too much for you to do. The most important thing for you to do while you're working in it is to make note of how everything was originally connected.

All of the neutral wires should be spliced together in the central hub, and then spliced to the neutral from the panel. That's the easy part. Just leave them together for now. The tricky part is keeping the internal hot wires connected correctly. The switch will have one terminal where the incoming hot wire is connected and three where the wires feeding the lampholders are connected. If you use white tape, markers, or anything you have handy to identify the switch terminals and the wires connected to each before you take anything apart, it will make it easier to put back together.

it needs to be rewired. The old wires are starting to fray.
If you mean that the insulation on them is becoming brittle, then you probably need to do something. Or is it just that the cloth outer cover is starting to unravel but the rubber underneath it is still OK? If the metal conductors inside are still in good condition, you may want to just restore the insulation with something like Liquid Electrical Tape.

I went to the home improvement store but I could not find new light sockets, or anything that seemed to be the switch part.
A typical home improvement store is unlikely to have what you need. They're in the business of selling complete fixtures. You'll need to look at a lighting supply store.

Why do you want to replace the lampholders? They look fine. Are the internal wires connected to them on screw terminals?

Without knowing where you are it's not possible to search for a specialized store near you. If you fill in the location information in your profile that will help us focus our answers.

That switch may be possible to replace, but it will probably be easier to keep it.
 
  #4  
Old 09-02-13, 07:34 AM
B
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: USA
Posts: 3
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
Thanks for the reply. I've added location information.

It is a hanging fixture and is most likely original to when electricity was installed in the house.

I've taken some more images so you can have a better look.

Here is the piece it hangs from, which screws onto the base. The wire runs up this then the chain and into the dome.
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/yLipJM5.jpg" width="161" height="81"/>

Here is the bottom so you can see the pull switch part.
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/mF7112e.jpg" width="161" height="81"/>

Here is a closer look to the wires inside which kind of look like a mess to me.
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/O0dDFFj.jpg" width="161" height="81"/>

And finally here is the frayed part (which was were the wire was exposed at the chain.
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/LCFgiXv.jpg" width="161" height="81"/>

I'm thinking the long wires that go up through the fixture into the ceiling at least need to be replaced?
 
  #5  
Old 09-02-13, 09:20 AM
V
Vey
Vey is offline
Member
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Mid-Florida
Posts: 1,201
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
What a gem! Definitely needs and well worthy of rewiring. You might try a hardware store instead of a big box store. They should be able to fix you up. My hardware has tons more switches than most stores do.
 
  #6  
Old 09-02-13, 11:26 AM
Nashkat1's Avatar
Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: USA
Posts: 7,458
Upvotes: 0
Received 6 Upvotes on 5 Posts
This fixture looks even more impressive now.

Yes, the wires that go up to the canopy (dome) need to be replaced. You could do that with a piece of black and a piece of white #14 AWG wire and sew a velvet scrunch to cover the chain, or you could clean the chain up and use a length of brass-colored lamp cord - the same cord that connects a table or floor lamp to its plug. When I use the lamp cord I split the part that goes through the chain and lace each conductor through the links, separately, to help make them disappear.

Whichever you do, it's important to keep hot and neutral clearly identified and properly connected, so that the hot will wind up on the buttons in the bottoms of the sockets and not on the threaded shells. That's easy with the black and white wires - white is neutral and black is hot. With the lamp cord look and feel for printing or ridges on only one half - one conductor - of the pair or, sometimes, you will see one copper and one silver stranded conductor inside.

The conductor with the printing or the ridges or the silver conductor will be the neutral and the other will be the hot. In the fixture hub, the new neutral will replace the long wire that's part of a splice with the five white wires that go to each socket. I think that that's under the white wire nut pointing at the camera in your picture of the hub wiring. The new hot wire will replace the the long wire that's connected to the switch. There should be a separate terminal on the switch just for that. In the ceiling, the fixture neutral goes to the house neutral and the fixture hot goes to the switched house hot - probably where they were before you took it down, assuming this was already hanging somewhere.

Two questions: One is, what's up with that black friction tape in the hub? What's that covering or protecting? If it looks like it's in good condition - still flexible and with no wires peeking out anywhere, you might be better off leaving it alone. I'm just curious, though, because it looks like part of an earlier fix.

The other is, do you have glass shades for this fixture? If not, do you think it would have originally had them? If there's a channel for the wires to each socket to go through under the rim of the shade, and if a shade with a 2-1/4" rim will fit in there, you could outfit it with something like... lemme see... House of Antique Hardware... Iridescent Gold Art Glass "Tulip" Shade with 2 1/4" Fitter. Of course, five of those cost $600.00. Maybe something like a Pink Tipped or Amber Tipped Floral Glass Shade, or an Amber Etch Fluted Panlight Shade instead. Rejuvenation Lighting & House Parts and Revival Lighting are also good sources if your local stores don't have them.

I don't see any evidence of the three screws that should be there to secure a glass shade though. That makes me think that you might need to go with clip-on drum shades instead. Or just some attractive light bulbs.

But I ramble, and you may have already figured out all of this.
 
  #7  
Old 09-03-13, 03:23 PM
B
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: USA
Posts: 3
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
Thumbs up

Thanks for all the help! Hopefully, I will have some time on Sunday to work on this. I checked and the black tape is covering another of the white caps which has three wires going into it (one red, two black). The tape seems to be in good shape and they wires look fine so I think I might leave it alone for now.

I do actually have the glass shades for it. I packed them away while I have the fixture down because I didn't want them to get broken. They just lay in the fixture and then the light bulb is sort of supposed to hold them in place.

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/LvN4wIc.jpg" width="161" height="81"/>
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/TJjDqSE.jpg" width="161" height="81"/>
 
  #8  
Old 09-03-13, 05:35 PM
Nashkat1's Avatar
Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: USA
Posts: 7,458
Upvotes: 0
Received 6 Upvotes on 5 Posts
Better and better!

I checked and the black tape is covering another of the white caps which has three wires going into it (one red, two black). The tape seems to be in good shape and they wires look fine so I think I might leave it alone for now.
That's fine. It sounds like one of the switch-to-socket connections.

If I were doing I would take the tape off because a decently made and protected splice doesn't need tape. I'd want to see what it's covering up. But, as I said, you don't have to, and it's been working fine the way it is.

I do actually have the glass shades for it. I packed them away while I have the fixture down because I didn't want them to get broken. They just lay in the fixture and then the light bulb is sort of supposed to hold them in place.
Very nice. I can't wait to see it back in service and lit up! Do the shades have a lip on the bottom that fits inside the rim of the cast arm ends?

Does the hot feed wire connect to the switch on a screw?
 
 

Thread Tools
Search this Thread
 
Ask a Question
Question Title:
Description:
Your question will be posted in: