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My buddy cut out an old transformer and timer that had been supplying outdoor lighting that no longer worked. This was also wired to the main.

Unfortunately I think his garage lights were also spliced into it and now no longer work. They have a switch in the garage and by the front door.

He now only has 14/3 wire coming out of the wall in the basement near where the transformer used to be and the cut main. What is the correct way to connect the 14/3 wire to the 14/2 main?

I drew a diagram as best I could below:

•Switch 2 and switch 4 used to control a light that no longer works.
•Switches 1-3 and wires A-E are location in a 3 gang box the garage.
•Switch 4 and wire F are by front door
•wire G is in the basement and used to be spliced into the main somehow, goes into a wall near garage, no idea what it connects to.

Need help with 3 way 5275480E-09EB-4D36-AEDB-88C9C64DB996 - EletriciansForums.net
 
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Lucien Nunes

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Cable G doesn't seem to be the far end of any other cable in your drawing, so it is impossible to know how it was wired. However, the 3-gang box appears to be complete with an incoming feed from the panel which would be cable D. Cables A & E would go to the lights controlled by switches 1 & 3, Cable B goes to the light controlled by the 3-way, and cable C goes across to switch 4 where it appears as cable F. This all checks out except the connections on switch 2 look wrong: C-red and B-black seem to be swapped, as B-black should be on the common, not C-red which is one of the two travelers. This would stop the light working with one of the two on-permutations of the 3-way.

Are the two lights controlled by the 1-gang switches working? If so, the feed is OK to the 3-gang box wirenuts and from the way the switches are wired (that odd mistake aside) the 3-way should work too. If only the 3-way is dead, then there might have been some other connections severed midway along the travelers to switch 4 but the disconnected cable G doesn't seem to fit that description.

If all the lights controlled by these switches are dead and there is no power at the wirenuts, then there might be some other j-box or outlet between cable G and cable D, which will need to be found to discover how it works. You might be able to use a multimeter to confirm continuity of say white, black and ground to the wirenuts behind the switches, but one would want to know what is happening with the red too before connecting up.
 
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