help needed with wiring switches

[geeman31]

my light in my kitchen and living room run off a 2 gamg switch and a one gang switch i want to change this to a 3 gang switch is this possible and can i get instruction on how to do it.

the wires coming down are. 2 seperate cables 1 with 3 wires red,black earth

the other is red,blue,yellow and earth

they run all 3 lights.

 

[Taylortwocities]

The separate gangs on the switches are separate.
Just wire up the new 3 gang switch in the same way as the old ones.
Just make a careful note and/or photo of the original wiring and look carefully at the switches to understand how the terminals are laid out.

Usually they are laid out like this (2 gang switch shown)

2 gang switch layout

• Taylortwocities
• 31 Aug 2009
• 16

 

[ban-all-sheds]

You've only got 2 cables - why do you want a 3-gang switch?

Is the R/Y/B one in the 2-gang with the red going to one COM, the other COM linked, and the yellow & blue into the L1s?

Basically you just need to make a careful note of which wires go where and transfer them to the new switch - a 3-gang switch is just three individual switches on one faceplate (but possibly all enclosed in a single moulding at the back).

Read the Wiki article on how switch terminals are arranged - sometimes with multi-gang ones the relative positions are inverted on every other gang, although with 1-way switches that's not a problem.

Also read the one on different labelling conventions for terminals - COM/L1 vs L1/L2 etc.

You should understand how lighting circuits are wired and what switches do before you start the job. As well as being a generally useful tool to have, a multimeter is a good thing to use to play around with switches and see what they do - particularly with 2-way and intermediate ones.

 

[geeman31]

thanks but unfortunately the guy who took the tiles off the wall and plastered for me disconnected the wires and insulated them so now all i have is the 2 cables and thats it he did not take a note of where the wire went

 

[riveralt]

thanks but unfortunately the guy who took the tiles off the wall and plastered for me disconnected the wires and insulated them so now all i have is the 2 cables and thats it he did not take a note of where the wire went

In which you will need to get access to a multi-meter and know how to use it.
You should also read here about the different lighting circuits here:
//www.diynot.com/wiki/electrics:lighting
Given the colour of conductor insulation you may have two way lighting or one way it is difficult to tell.