I have 2 ceiling fans that were in my house when I moved in. Both fans have recently had the pull strings torn out of the switch. I took the fans apart, and wrote down the information on the switch, and both fans have a switch with 4 wires. The wires are labeled L,1,2,3. I went to the hardware store and bought replacement switches, also labeled L,1,2,3.
At this point I decided to play it safe and I labeled each of the wires based on the hole that they were inserted into (L,1,2,3). When I turned the power back on, instead of 3 speeds, I have 1. When I put the old broken switch back in place, the fan immediately runs on high (the speed it was on when the chain was pulled out), so I'm pretty sure that the fan is alright.
I'm nervous about just trying random combinations, not know what each of the different holes is for. I also do not know the manufacturer of the fans, so I am at a bit of a loss as far as reading manuals, or getting OEM help.
Will I be OK just trying different combinations until the fan is working better? I'd really rather not bring in an electrician.
Best Answer
Do you have any part of pull chain left in the old switch, even if you need to use tweezers or something to use it? If you do, then you could use a continuity tester or volt-ohm meter and test how the switch is working when the chain is pull through its cycles. That is, see which wires let voltage through (and it may be more than two at a time).
To me, "L" should be the hot voltage in to the switch, while 1-3 should be power to the fan.
If you can not test the switch directly, perhaps this article will shed some light.
http://www.ceiling-fans-n-more.com/ceiling-fan-pullchain-replacement-and-repair.php