HELP with replacing outside light

[dena007]

I am just trying to replace an outside light which was damaged. Being a complete novice but also not wanting to depend on a man to help I have tried to do this myself-My problem is that I have wired up live to live etc, and now my light is 'on' all the time-when I try to flick the switch 'off' I end up tripping the lights out.

How do I find out which wire is from the mains & which goes to the Switch? I understand that both wires from the switch are 'live' and that one of these joins up with the 'live' from the new light.

Any help (yes, even from a man) would be really helpfull!!

 

[felix]

Let me guess. You have two cables coming into your new light and you have connected live to live, neutral to neutral and earth to earth. Classic boo-boo. You have your light and switch in parallel instead of series. (Do I hear distant laughter?)

To get out of this you'll have to work out which of those two neutrals is really switched live. Solution: remove one from its terminal and insulate it. If the light stays permanently on but the switch no longer trips the lights you've found it. If the light doesn't come on don't bother testing the switch; you want the other one.

Now for the tricky bit. You need a fourth terminal in your light fitting. This is where you connect the two lives. The switched live then goes to the terminal you just took these out of and the true neutral stays put. If you don't have a fourth terminal you can use a piece of choc block.

 

[dena007]

Thanks Felix,

I think I'd better wait until it stops raining & then I'll try that.