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hi i am fitting ceiling lights and on taking out the old light i am left with two sets of three wires three blackand three red (and the earth wires)
i have connected the three black wires to the blue wire on the new light fitting and the three red wires to the brown wire on fitting when i turn on the lights it is blowing back to the mains please help....steve

Yet another one that has done the old classic

One of the blacks is actually a switch wire and should therefore join into the brown wire of the light fitting. Is there red tape on any of the black wires by any chance? If so that is the one that goes in with the brown wires (L)

The remaining 2 blacks should then go into the blue wires of the lights.

The remaining reds will have to go into a strip connector and left alone.

If in doubt get an electrician in!

thanks for your help i think it is time for me to call an electrician as i can get the light to work from main but it wont switch when i pull the pullcord i have tried each black wire in turn to find which one was to go in the switch two did nothing and one blew it back to the mains thanks anyway mate ...steve

The reason it didn't work was because when you tried one at a time, there was no neutral at the light. Therefore it would not work as lights cannot work without a neutral.

It will only be a 5 min job for a leccy so you should get a price over the phone ok

sparky has been job done and thanks for your help ....steve

can anyone help a frustrated diyer.
I want to replace a bedroom light fitting with a more modern light.
I have 4 black and 3 red wires from the ceiling and on connecting and switching power back on there was a spark from the fuse box but the fuse had not blown.
On checking the fuse i found that there was not proper fuse wire but copper wire instead. Now none of the upstairs lights have power. Can anyone help or advise.
I have replaced the copper wire in the fuse with the correct type of fuse wire but still no power. Do i need a sparky to take a look or is there anything i can do......help !!!!!

Hi Tim,

Can you tell us where you connected the cables to?

Might be a good idea if you switch off the electric and start again.

Take a look here- http://www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk/diy/e ... /index.htm

and see if your lighting arrangement is there, then post back and let us know.

If you could take some pictures, perhaps with a digital camera or mobile phone they will help us.

Thanks for the quick reply. Perhaps i should have explained it a bit better.
There are 3 wires from the ceiling...2 of them have one black and one red and the 3rd has 2 blacks and one red. They were connected to 3 blocks...2 blocks have 2 holes and 1 block has 3 holes......With the live and neutral from the new fitting to go into these as well i am left with not enough holes for the wires.
I know the 3 reds have to all go together i've just obviously put the blacks in the wrong place and i'm left with one black with no hole.

After i had replaced the fuse wire i put the power back on and tested all the wires in all 3 bedrooms but no power there at all. Think its to do with the copper wire and maybe somewhere in the system a wire needs replacing. Just a bit baffling

A picture would be good as the description does not make much sense to me

will take a photo over the w/e. Thanks so far

tim wrote:will take a photo over the w/e. Thanks so far

I wish I could of been more help, but it's hard without seeing it!

Some of the sparks might be on later and may just answer without actually seeing it!

as UHM suggested, post a pic asap and we should be able to understand a bit more.
so far i am really not sure what you have as what you have said doesn't add up wiring wise.

it is more likely that you actually have this: -

a ceiling rose with:-

1 block that has 2 connections (one side with the brown from the pendant in it & either a black with red marking on or a red wire)

1 block that has 3 connections (in the middle and has the reds connected to it)

1 block that has 3 connections (on the other side that has the blue wire form the pendant & the blacks connected to it)

a picture would help because this

the 3rd has 2 blacks and one red

doesn't sound right