"aemeijers" wrote in message
...
On 10/28/2011 1:47 PM, John Gilmer wrote:


I'm no electrician, but speaking from experience, I'd lay money on the
pull-chain part being corroded. If you decide to take it apart, go buy
a
new one first. They are so cheap, probably not worth trying to fix. I'd
also look at buying a weather rated fixture. I'd suggest a plain
fixture
and adding a switch, but pretty sure that is beyond your comfort level.

That (corrosion) would be my first guess. Use a pencil eraser to "clean"
the center contact of the light socket. Operate the switch MANY times.
With luck you can cut through the corrosion.

The next step is to pick up "voltage detector." These gadgets "beep" and
and sometimes light when the tip is brought near a hot wire. These are
completely insulated so you can poke them around without risk of shock
or shorting something else.

With the voltage detector at hand, take the cover plate off the switch
and see what's Hot and what's not hot with the switch in it's two
positions. That will give you a clue whether there is corrosion inside
the switch or the wire connection at the switch is corroded.





It's a pull chain fixture. Unless OP hasn't found it, there is no switch
to pull the cover plate off of.

I think he meant say "to pull the fixture off the junction box" and check
what you can see on the pullchain switch mechanism wiring and mechansim.
That tends to vary from fixture to fixture. On mine you unscrew a porcelain
retaining ring and the whole switch body pulls out. I'd also look behind it
to see if the wire's still under the screws and not broken off at the strip
juncture. That's a common failure point and a spot where I've been failed by
the AHJ more than once. It's easy to badly nick the wire and not see it,
especially if you're blind as a bat. I use a very bright LED headlamp for
wiring that sort of stuff now because of aging eyeballs and a known bad hand
when it comes to nicking romex while stripping it. .

--
Bobby G.