Okay, so first of all, this is pretty ironic! My husband was a Foreman/Journeyman Electrician and was pretty awesome at his trade. However, is almost 2 years into recovery from a brain injury (I left work on a gut feeling 4-29-13 and came home to find him unresponsive with blood coming from his mouth, lying in the threshold of our bedroom. Hypoglycemic Coma-still to this day the reason is still unknown. I was told that he would not recover to which I said "Challenge Accepted" and he has been getting better ever since), which has landed an insane amount of "figure-it-out" issues in my lap.
Sorry, story-time is over…..
He ended up losing balance one day, and fell against the wall with a 3 switch plate in our bedroom. The 3 switches are
- Minka Aire Fan wall switch
- Light switch w/dimmer and
- normal light switch.
After falling against the wall, the fan switch stopped working (grrrr! which took me a month to find in the first place!). I recently (finally) got around to getting a new wall switch. When I connected the new switch, the power light came on, but when I went to push the wiring/unit into the box, it stopped working. I also wired a normal switch to the wiring for the fan switch to make sure that there was not an issue with the wiring, and the fan turned on fine with it. I did notice that the box seems to be pressed into the wall (from the impact of his body hitting it) on the end where the fan switch is located.
Could it be possible that the impact of his weight falling against it could be causing the wiring going through the box and into the wall to be "pinched" somewhere? This would be why the switch worked until I pushed it into the box? Am I better off just removing the existing box and replacing it with an old work one?
Any input would be hugely appreciated!!!
Best Answer
It's highly unlikely that the box itself is broken and causing this problem.
What you should do next is remove everything from the box (label the wires first). Also remove each wire nut and put it back on, one at a time. In doing this, you may find a loose connection or wire nut. If not, then inspect each wire to make sure the plastic covering is intact. If you find anything broken, you might be able to shorten the wire past the break. Now put everything back together.
If it still doesn't work, it's time to call a professional.