4 Way switch issues.

[JA600L]

Hey guys, I'm doing a basement remodel. I swapped out all my light switches and now I cannot use all of the switches as I could before. All I did was put the wires where they were on the old switches.


For both 3 way switches the black wire is on the black screw. The Red and white wires are on the other two terminals

The 4 Way switch Travellers are black across from Red from the same cable. Same with the second red and black.

The only way I can get it to work is if both 3 ways are switched down and the 4 Way is switched up.

 

[1kzwoman]

(broken link removed). com has some good diagrams.

 

[begreen]

Hard to tell remotely but I'm going to take a guess that the white wire belongs on the common (black) screw of the 3 way switches and the red and black wires (travellers) go to the other terminals.

 

[seige101]

On the 4 way splice the black wire across and put 1 set of red and white one one set of terminals and the other set of wires on the other terminals

 

[Ncountry]

http://www.easy-do-it-yourself-home-improvements.com/4-way-switch-wiring-diagram.html

Good pictures here.

 

[Ashful]

I suspect the "common" terminal on your two three-way switches (either end of the circuit) is in a different location on the new switches vs. old switches. Compare them, and look for a screw marked "com" or one screw color different than the other two.

 

[Have maul will travel]

Ncountry's good pictures are indeed good, you should be able to determine from them and from where the wires come from that are attached to your black screws whether your wiring is option 1 or 2.

It seems to me that either:

A) Your power is coming from and to the light fixture at one three way switch (option 1) in which case seige101 is right and at the 4-way switch the reds and whites should be attached to the switch and the blacks should be capped together, or

B) Your power is coming to one switch and going from the other to the light fixture. (option 2) In this case your travelers are wrong on the 3-way switches, they should be the red and black wires that are in the same cable as the white and the whites should be capped together at all three switches.

Good luck and let us know if it worked out.

 

[xman23]

Make yourself a diagram of a four way, 3 switches. Remove power; take all the wires apart and ring them out, from point to point. It's hard guess what's in the wrong spot.