On 6 Dec 2006 07:51:50 -0800, wrote:

I am hanging a ceiling fan and found the following when I dropped the
light:

1) There are 3 romex cables coming into the box. I will call them A,
B and C.

2) Ground wires (bare): A & B are twisted together and loose in
box...each wire is about 3 inches long. C is grounded to box.

3) Black wires: A & B are twisted together and capped off with a wire
connector. They are pushed back in box (unconnected). C is twisted
together with B's white wire and connected to black wire from ceiling
light.

4) White wires: A & C are twisted together and connected to white wire
from ceiling light. As mentioned above, B is tied together with C's
black wire from C and connected to black wire from ceiling light.

Is this, which appears to me as a mess, correct? Should I: (a) hang my
ceiling fan and maintain the current wiring arrangement, (b) use only
the wires on C and cap of A & B with wire connectors, or (c) call an
electrician?


If I understand your description properly, then
I expect that (A) is coming from the service panel,
and feeding a hot and a ground to (B), which
is returning a switched hot on the white wire,
{which therefore ought to be marked in some way.}

That switched hot is supplying both the light
fixture, and something else off on the
other end of cable (C).

The nuetral coming back from whatever's on
the other end of (C) combines with the
nuetral off the light, and goes back to
the service panel on the white wire from (A).

If this is correct, then the ground wires
are wrong, since the ground from the
mystery device is connected to the box here,
but not to the ground that leads to the
service panel. All three grounds should
be twisted together, along with one from
the box itself.

Note that you don't have enough wires from
the switch to SWITCH both a light and a fan,
but since you've got an always-hot
wire from the service panel, you can supply
the fan from that, and use the pull-chain
to control the fan.

So you'll want
[ (A,black) (B,Black), (fan) ] = Supply

[ (B,white) (C,black), (light) ] = Switched

[ (A,white) (C,White), (fan/light, white) ]

and
[ (A, ground) (B, ground) (C, Ground) (Box-Ground) ]

.....

--Goedjn.

ps. Always assuming I've guessed right about what
the current wires are doing.



Thanks.