Easy Question - Stuck for 2 days

[Edhgreatone]

Installed a ceiling fan where no pre existing fixture existing. I got a 14/3 wire and wired it from fan assembly to the light switch through the attic.

I want the fan light on a dimmer switch and the fan motor on a separate switch. I worked on this all day and was completely stumped on the wiring. I google'd and watch hours of youtube video and still stuck. I figured someone that has a decent knowledge of this could fix it up within seconds.

My issue right now is only the fan light on the dimmer switch is working. The switch to the motor fan is NOT working. When testing the wires on the motor fan switch with this non contact tester tool I got.. it has current (if that's the right word) going from the power source and also back out the black wire to the fan motor. What worries me a little is both black wire from power source going in and black wire going out to motor have current regardless if switch is ON or OFF. This is also true for the dimmer switch yet the light turns off when I turn off the switch (both black and red wire have current).

I drew up a diagram on how I wired it... took me awhile so hopefully it helps.

Question #1 --- what wires do I need to move to get the fan motor switch working?

Question #2 --- I want to remove the receptacle switch so it says on all the time. There's so many wires in the receptacle outlet on the wall I don't know what to do.

 

[westward10]

What are the mustard coloured wires the grounds. Can you show a pic of the switch connections.

 

[Edhgreatone]

Sorry the mustard color are the ground wires. Attached are pictures.

 

[westward10]

Is the left switch the fan light, it has two reds your drawing shows one. Where does the feed hot go to, middle or left switch.

 

[Edhgreatone]

Thank you for looking into this... there are 2 reds total and its captured right in the diagram... actual Picture makes it look weird...

1 - coming from power source and I just put a wire nut on it... no power

2 - other one I wired from the new line from switch to fan light

And yes the left switch is the fan light dimmer switch... the black hot feed I pig tailed... 1 goes into dimmer switch for fan light and 2nd part goes to fan motor switch

 

[Lucien Nunes]

The hookup appears to be correct at least superficially. I wonder whether the connections at the fan end are OK? Don't try powering the motor from the light feed (motors don't like dimmers) but you could try wirenutting the light input to the motor feed to prove that the power is getting there by lighting the light. If so, you might find an internal connection loose within the fan, or that the motor plugs in internally and that connector is parted.

The word you are looking for is voltage, not current. Current flows around a circuit, voltage is the pressure that pushes it around and that is what the non-contact detector responds to. There are all sorts of caveats to using these basic gadgets. For example, they will often give a false positive reading on a wire that is completely disconnected, because although there's no connection to make it hot, there's no route to drain away any minute charge it picks up from anything that is hot, and the indicator will respond to that.

If your motor connections are broken and the switch is off, the motor hot wire is 'floating' and the indicator may read it as hot, so this doesn't really provide any useful information.

 

[Edhgreatone]

The hookup appears to be correct at least superficially. I wonder whether the connections at the fan end are OK? Don't try powering the motor from the light feed (motors don't like dimmers) but you could try wirenutting the light input to the motor feed to prove that the power is getting there by lighting the light. If so, you might find an internal connection loose within the fan, or that the motor plugs in internally and that connector is parted.

The word you are looking for is voltage, not current. Current flows around a circuit, voltage is the pressure that pushes it around and that is what the non-contact detector responds to. There are all sorts of caveats to using these basic gadgets. For example, they will often give a false positive reading on a wire that is completely disconnected, because although there's no connection to make it hot, there's no route to drain away any minute charge it picks up from anything that is hot, and the indicator will respond to that.

If your motor connections are broken and the switch is off, the motor hot wire is 'floating' and the indicator may read it as hot, so this doesn't really provide any useful information.

Wow, what a clever idea and thanks for all the detailed info.. so I swapped the black motor wire with the red light wire in the switch box... the fan motor is working like a charm on the dimmer switch.... so that would rule out any poor connections wired up to the fan assembly...

so it’s something with the switch box then... I have 2 switches because I wasn’t sure if I had a single pole or 3 way... neither of them are working... I’m wondering if I should remove the pig tails from the hot power source and do the other way or the jump trick?

 

[westward10]

What connections are you using on the switch.

 

[Edhgreatone]

What connections are you using on the switch.

Originally before I swapped the light and motor it was exactly how it shows in the diagram... a grounding wire on left... on top right the pig tailed hot wire and bottom right the black wire running to fan motor...

any ideas on how to trouble shoot next? Should the red wire coming from house source just be capped (there’s no voltage coming from it)...

 

[westward10]

Does the switch have two or more terminals ignoring the ground terminal.

 

[Edhgreatone]

Does the switch have two or more terminals ignoring the ground terminal.

just 2... here below:

 

[westward10]

Are they the only terminals on that switch. You now have a red connected to it?

 

[Edhgreatone]

Are they the only terminals on that switch. You now have a red connected to it?

Yes those are the only 2 terminals on the switch... that’s correct the red wire to the light is on there now as I was troubleshooting in the post above... I’ve confirmed fan is wired correctly because both the light and motor are working on the dimmer switch BUT NEITHER work on the 2nd switch.. I’ve tried a different switch in same spot and still no luck...

any thoughts on where to go from here?