Shortening Ceiling Light no coloured wires

[motso]

Afternoon all,

Another lighting problem.. I have looked for other threads on this but can't find anything. I'm trying to fit a ceiling light which needed the flex shortening. Ridiculously all three wires in the light are silver (not blue, brown green). Needing to trim off about 0.5m of flex I marked the wires up however when pulling the sheath off two of these fell off.

Is there anyway of knowing which wire is which? The other end of the flex is sealed in the light and not accessible.

I'm not even confident the pink mark is what I thought it was now!

Any help would be gratefully received!

Tom

 

[chivers67]

Have you got a meter of any description?

 

[motso]

not other than a voltage tester, what sort would I need?

 

[Taylortwocities]

A multimeter or a continuity tester - a bell and a battery would be enough.

You need to test which is the
earth (metal part of the lamp),
live = centre contact of lamp (l guess it's a screw in lamp?
Neutral = the screw part of the lamp socket.

You have to be sure, if you mix it up then you could connect live to the metal part of the fitting, and you do not want to do that!

 

[motso]

Thanks, could i work it out with one of these?
http://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-mas83...0v/75337#product_additional_details_container

 

[Gerrydelasel]

Sometimes there is a raised ridge running down the side of one of the cables. This may help you to identify at least one of them.

Get a battery, hold one terminal on one end of lamp casing, then gently flick each wire in turn against the other battery terminal. You'll get a tiny spark when you've found the earth (you'll probably need to do it in the dark so you can see it OK).

 

[securespark]

Yes. But as has been stressed, you need to get this right otherwise you risk electrocution.

 

[motso]

OK, thanks all. As I'm not at all confident with this I think I'll abandon until I next have an electrician round - not worth dying over! Is it not a bit ridiculous that the wires weren't marked? Think it's from John Lewis, almost as if your not meant to shorten it (no mention in brief instructions) which is nonsense as the flex is so long.

Thanks again.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Were there no marks on the orifginal wires, at all?