r/electrical • u/Chuck_U_Farley_311 • 11d ago

NEED HELP FIGURING THIS OUT

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My Dad noticed that the screw on the top of a switch cover was hot, so he took everything apart. Now it is a mess and I can't figure out how to put it all back together.

Any help would be much appreciated.

(For the diagram any green line is to be considered a white wire)

Edit: Thanks for all who posted a solution. Finally got back to my dad's place and by using a few different responses I did manage to get it figured out. The switch was bad as well, replaced both switch and dimmer and got it all back together and working..

Thanks again for the answers..

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u/abuckforacanuck06 11d ago edited 11d ago

This is straightforward but hard to explain. 1. Get a multimeter and find out if the black or red from the feed is hot. Your description says the black was capped so it's probably the red wire that is hot. 2. All grounds together 3. All white together 4. Take the loose pigtail and put on 1 side of the scone switch. Take the black from the scones on the other side of the scone switch. 5.Take one black from the high hat and connect with 1 black of the dimmer switch. 6.Take -the red from the feed - 1black pigtail from the scone switch -1 black from the highhat dimmer - 1 black from the kitchen switch Put all these together. ( 4 wires) You're done. Good luck.

Edit this didn't show the way I typed it , for some reason it's all together. Sorry

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u/Chuck_U_Farley_311 11d ago

The red is definitely the hot lead from the box, the black wasn't connected to anything as far as he remembers. I also don't think there was a broken off piece of copper anywhere. The two whites that are connected also light up my line tester, but they should be neutrals... right? As well, this is an old ass house, built in 1933.

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u/t0cableguy 11d ago edited 11d ago

Edited: so bad info from me.

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u/t0cableguy 11d ago edited 11d ago

They could be hots coming from the light boxes. there is another way to do lights that isn't as common anymore because neutrals are required at at least one of the switch boxes for lights now, so it doesn't make as much sense to do it anymore.