We have a 78' rancher here in Texas we just moved into and just replaced all the power receptacles/ outlets. So of them were tricky some of them were straight forward, the room was split up into two circuits but got it figured out. I got to the one light switch in the room to replace it with a rocker switch and it as I disconnected it realized the ground, top, and bottom screw in terminals were all black hot wires. Upon further inspection I found three neutrals screw capped together, and three grounds all screw capped together. I plugged them in what I thought was exactly the same as they were before and it did't work. I decided to grab a pen and paper and keep trap of all the possible combinations and the results to figure out where the problem was. This switch controls the light in the room but also feeds power in to the bathroom right next to it. Here are the results.
Wire 1- Ground, Wire 2- Top, Wire 3- Bottom; Results [Light: No; Bathroom: Yes]
Wire 1- Ground, Wire 2- Bottom, Wire 3- Top; Results [Light: No; Bathroom: Yes]
Wire 2- Ground, Wire 3- Top, Wire 1- Bottom; Results [Light: Yes; Bathroom: No]
Wire 2- Ground, Wire 3- Bottom, Wire 1- Top; Results [Light: Yes; Bathroom: No]
Wire 3- Ground, Wire 1- Top, Wire 2- Bottom; Results [Light: No; Bathroom: No]
Wire 3- Ground, Wire 1- Bottom, Wire 2- Top; Results [Light: No; Bathroom: No]
So that looks like every combination and I couldn't get it to work. I am wondering if it is the switch it self… It is just a standard rocker switch, not a three way.
The next thing I tried was twisting the 3 hots together with a black piggy back to the top screw terminal and twisting the 3 neutrals together with a white piggy back and running that to the bottom screw terminal and left the grounds alone. [Result: Breaker tripped]
Finally I added a copper ground piggyback and twisted it with the 3 other grounds and ran that to the ground screw terminal. [Result: breaker tripped]
So, after all that I am still lost and can't get it to run. For some reason the AC is also on this circuit but it had been running perfectly fine, no trips with the previous switch. My best guess is it is the actual switch but I could use some help from the experts. This is the first day either my wife or I have really done any electrical work and while we figured a lot out, I am really lost here… Any help would be very appreciated, thank you!!!
*** Correction all existing wiring and new piggybacks are 12ga
Best Answer
Your switch is fine
The switch is fine -- it just needs to be wired correctly. Keep the neutrals nutted together, and pigtail the ground to the switch's ground terminal (I have no clue why a black wire got landed on a ground screw in the previous configuration, but it was clearly wrong). (You can strip your existing 12AWG white pigtail bare and reuse it for pigtailing the ground, BTW.) Then take the feed (3) and the bathroom (2) black (hot) wires and nut them together to your black pigtail, which lands on one switch hot screw. Finally, land the remaining black wire on the other hot screw.