On Mon, 11 Jan 2016 13:30:51 -0500, Micky
wrote:

On Mon, 11 Jan 2016 15:49:49 +0000 (UTC), "badgolferman"
wrote:

My house has an outside light over the garage door which doesn't work.
My goal is to replace it with an automatic flood light. There is a
light switch plate inside the garage on the same wall that has two
switches, one for the lights inside the garage and one presumably for
the outside one.

I have taken the light fixture off and checked the wires but don't see
any voltage there no matter what position the switch is in. My next
step is to take the switch plate apart and check for voltage there.
Would I be right to assume both switches should be on the same circuit?

Probably, but why think about things like this? You'll find out when
you find out and the procedure is the same either way. Check for
voltage wrt ground at both sides of the non-useful switch. When you
find that one screw is hot, check for voltage on the other side when
the switch is in the ON position. If one side has 120 and the other
side has little or nothing, the switch is bad.

If neither side of that switch has voltage but the other switch does,
as it must if it's controlling a light, well, that's not likely to be
the case.


What other troubleshooting tips do you have?
If the switch is a "drop" switch and the bulb is dead or a wire is
off at the light, or something else is wrong in the fixture, there
WILL be no power at the switch. - but there would be power at the
light...