Electrical wiring help

[markprior22]

I am replacing a ceiling fan in the living room and can't figure out what I did wrong. The new ceiling fan is supposed to have 3 speeds. When I turned the breaker on, the fan started spinning. However, it just goes at one speed and won't turn off. The light goes on and off like it should.

I thought the wiring was pretty straight forward but I obviously mucked something up. I am terrible at handyman projects and this really has me frustrated.

If I remember correctly, there was a black, white and bare wire coming from the ceiling. I think the fan had two green ground wires (one with the other wires and the second screwed on to the side of the bracket), one white wire and two darker wires. I tied the two green wires to the bare wire. White wire to white wire and the two darker wires to the black wire coming from the ceiling.

Looking at the instructions, it looks like I wired it for a single switch. The only diagrams shown in the directions is for single switch or dual switch. I don't have any switches.

Any idea what I might have done wrong or how I can fix it? I figured it wouldn't work at all if I wired it incorrectly. I guess I have to take the whole freaking thing back down to get to the wiring. I sure wish there was a way to test the damn thing once it was wired before putting the rest of it together.

End vent....appreciate any help

[stevew]

I think one of the darker wires needs tied to the white, but please don't quote me on that without looking in the manual. I think black with black, 2 others with white.

Unless you work physically, this type of project really hurts the deltoids. Make sure to take some Tylenol if you have to take it apart.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

If I remember right from when I reinstalled my ceiling fan a couple weeks ago..

Fan - Box

White - White
Black - Black
Blue - Black

bare wire is ground.

[markprior22]

yeah, i don't get it. From the house, I have 1 bare, 1 tan/reddish (hard to tell due to age) and 1 black. Fan has green, white, black and black/white stripe. Mounting bracket also has a green wire screwed to it that needs to connect somewhere (I assume ground).

Every diagram I can find shows using either a single or dual switch. My fan doesn't run off a switch. It runs solely off the pull chain.

I had the two greens attached to bare wire, the reddish/tan house wire to the white and the black & black/white attached to black house wire.

I don't understand why that won't work.

Edit-I imagine what I refer to as reddish/tan is probably white just discolored over time.

[cougarfreak]

I'd give you advice, buy I'd probably get you fried..........

[markprior22]

I think I did it right. I'm going to take the switch unit back and try to get it replaced. I'm so poor at mechanical repairs that I always figure it is something I did but I think something is not working properly with the switch.

[CU Tiger]

just saw this but ill try to help on the off chacne you ahvent solved it.

House has a bare (ground wire or more technically grounding conductor)
That tan was white (grounded conductor)
Black

this is a house, right?
Then we are dealing with 1phase simple circuits.

Think of it this way.
The blacks are the power in, the whites are he path for the power to flow and complete the circuit and the greens and bares are the path to ground to trip a brekaer in case something gets screwy.

If you did exactly what you said and went 2 blacks to balck and the fan constant spins it likely means the fan pull switch is defective.

But thats unlikely...for a new fan...those are pretty hardy.

Now lots of other shit could be going on.
You could have a black and a red in there two separate circuits for fand and light and the bare is your return/common/neutral.
in which case whites and green tie to bare and the black and blakc stripe go to the otehr two independently...

need some basic tools to troubleshoot....and i need to fdn the ping drunk guy thread

gl

ping me if its not resolved

[PilotMan]

You could have a black and a red in there two separate circuits for fand and light and the bare is your return/common/neutral.
in which case whites and green tie to bare and the black and blakc stripe go to the otehr two independently...


Lol. Flere-ogram? Five times through and all I can think of is Dr Seuss' "1 fish, 2 fish, red fish, blue fish."

[CU Tiger]

Wow....ok so my hart was definitely in the right place trying to help, the problem was my brain was not present.

markprior22 is this resolved?

[M GO BLUE!!!]

If it's not working, go to the wall switch that controls the light. Look at the wires. Should be two black connected to the switch with the white (or aged & discolored white) just nutted together.

[CU Tiger]

If it's not working, go to the wall switch that controls the light. Look at the wires. Should be two black connected to the switch with the white (or aged & discolored white) just nutted together.

nah he already said there is no switch.

[markprior22]

Yep...sorry forgot to update. The fan switch apparently was defective. I returned the original switch unit for a new one and it worked fine. I am so terrible at these little repairs that if something doesn't work I just assume I must have done something wrong. All is well....thanks for the replies.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

nah he already said there is no switch.

There's the problem!

I wonder if the switch at my mom's place that does nothing controls his ceiling fan... I'll call her & tell her to turn it on. If it works, we have solved two mysteries!