On Monday, February 27, 2017 at 1:02:01 PM UTC-6, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Monday, February 27, 2017 at 12:21:30 PM UTC-5, wrote:
On Mon, 27 Feb 2017 09:03:43 -0800 (PST), trader_4
wrote:

On Sunday, February 26, 2017 at 11:16:13 PM UTC-5, philo wrote:
On 02/26/2017 09:33 PM, Ken Hockenberry wrote:
In the basement staircase of my older home (inside my attached garage) I want to eliminate a 3 way switch at the end of a circuit, and install a light fixture near the switch I want to remove - at the bottom of this staircase.

When I removed the cover from this switch I found 4 blue wires, one of them marked with black tape. The 3 way switch itself is very old (circa 1959) with four brass screws, two at the top and two at the bottom.

Can I eliminate this switch, and install a needed light fixture, using these 4 blue wires from this switch?

The switch at the top of the steps is the switch which has power coming into it.



Rather than me trying to explain the wiring, if you google you can find
the diagram but what you describe is not a three way switch.

A three way switch is single pole double throw.


What you have is a four way switch...the other two switches would be the
three way type.


He has a DPST switch, which like you say, is typically used in the
middle of a 4-way, with 3 way, SPDT switches at either end.


If you have a total of two switches than I don't know what you have
there...so you need to trace out the wires.

You can also do a 3-way with two of his DPST switches, one at each
end. Here's a diagram, look part way down:

http://diy.stackexchange.com/questio...switches/40423

It seems that he probably can do what he wants, which, as I understand it,
is to have the existing 3-way light be controlled by the other location
only and have the new light controlled by a switch at the location of
the DPST, 4 terminal switch. He needs to find where he has the hots
and neutral and work accordingly. But since with a 3 way he has two
wires going between the two locations, I think it should be possible.

Eliminating the 4 way is as simple as wire nutting the travelers
together and putting a blank plate over it.
Just be sure you get the right 2 pairs to connect. Connect one from
each cable to one from the other cable.

That would certainly eliminate the 4 way switch, but it doesn't address his request
to add a fixture "using these 4 wires".

It's not clear to me how he wants to control the new fixture. Is it supposed to be a stand
alone fixture with it's own switch or does he want it to come on when he uses the
other 3-ways that we are assuming are currently present. I think we need a little more
info.



Thank you for your help

Here is my diagram - as best I can lay it out:


Light ------------ Light ------------ Light
Switch Switch

I want to eliminate the light switch at the right end of this line and insert a light fixture.

When I removed the light switch at the end of the run, I found 4 blue wires.
One of these blue wires had black tape on it.
I want to know how to wire the the light fixture in this location (near bottom of steps into the basement).

Thanks again for your help.