Yet another Pull Switch wiring question!

[bobobo]

I need to replace an old one-way pull switch. The new one has L1, C and earth ports. Presumably the green & yellow wire goes to the earth and the red to L1 but what do I do with the black (neutral) wire - put it in C or just wrap the end in insulation tape and let it hang? Any advice greatly appreciated.

 

[wingcoax]

If those are the only wires there then put red in C black in L1 and earth in the earth. The black is not neutral but switch return and should have a sleeve of red fitted.

 

[LearningSpark]

Black isn't a neutral, it will be switched live. Red to C, put a piece of brown sleeve or tape over the black and connect to L1. Earth to earth as you said.

 

[LearningSpark]

Damn, must type faster!

 

[bobobo]

Thanks guys!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

bobobo - the reason that you thought it would be OK for you to fiddle with electrical wiring even though you must know that you don't have the faintest idea how it works was what, exactly?

 

[bobobo]

Please accept my apologies but I thought the idea of this forum was to seek the wise counsel of others before "fiddling" with the electrics or indeed anything else. I'm sure you could find a supercilious old gits forum where your particular set of inter-personal skills would be better appreciated.

 

[wingcoax]

Nice one

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I'm sure you could find a supercilious old gits forum where your particular set of inter-personal skills would be better appreciated.

And I'm not sure, but ever optimistic, that if you try really, REALLY hard you might manage to grasp what the word "before" means, and how you should try and put it between learning and doing, unlike the current situation where you didn't think you should actually try and learn how it worked before you took the switch off and decided that you'd verify your assumption that black was neutral and that you should either arrange for it to become directly connected to live, or left unconnected so that you had a switch with a conductor going in and nothing coming out, which would work how? Magic?

The thing is at the moment even replacing a switch is not a trivial job for you, because you don't have the first idea about circuits or even what a switch does, and I can assure you that it involves knowing more than you do right now.

Asking questions here can be a useful part of a learning process, but they are not a substitute for proper structured studying. The key term there is "learning process" - you cannot learn all the things you need to know just by asking questions here. It isn't structured enough - it won't provide you with a way to progress where each step builds on what you learned before.

You can't carry out electrical work by asking whatever random questions happen to occur to you. You've already shown that you have some incredibly dodgy misconceptions - what if you get something wrong because you have no idea your knowledge is wrong? What if you miss something because you simply have no idea it even exists, and just don't realise you don't know it?

• http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=electrical+circuits+101
  
  
• http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=multimeter+101
  
  
• http://kevinboone.net/electricity.html
  
  
• http://web.archive.org/web/20080213151445/http://www.kevinboone.com/domesticinstallations.html
  
  
• //www.diynot.com/wiki/electrics:books
  
  
• //www.diynot.com/wiki/electrics
  
  

 

[bobobo]

Two points:
1. I DID NOT take the old swich off BEFORE seeking advice, I simply looked at the existing wiring.
2. Get a life!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Two points:
1. I DID NOT take the old swich off BEFORE seeking advice, I simply looked at the existing wiring.

OK - so you looked at the wiring.

Presumably the green & yellow wire goes to the earth

So when you looked at the existing wiring, where did the G/Y go, and why were you not ABSOLUTELY SURE about where it should go, given that you thought you were pretty much OK to start replacing switches?

and the red to L1 but what do I do with the black (neutral) wire - put it in C

Dear God.

So you looked at the existing wiring, and thought that the black was neutral. That shows that you don't have the faintest idea of what a switch does or how lighting circuits work.

or just wrap the end in insulation tape and let it hang?

So you looked at the existing wiring.

Was the black connected to the switch, or was it wrapped in tape and just hanging?

Did the switch work?

What was going on inside your head which led you to think that maybe you might need connect it up differently to the way which worked?

2. Get a life!

I have one, thanks.

If you'd like to hang on to yours I suggest you try and find some senses to come to and realise that your ignorance is so profound that you need to do a lot of learning before you even think of picking up a screwdriver just to look at existing wiring.