Matt,

My mother-in-law has this same problem and after reading your reply, I think
you may have the answer I need. I would like to verify with you how to ID
the wires asuming the switches were wired wrong originally and the previous
owner didn't use standard color codes. I assume I can ID the wires using a
simple 2 probe tester with LED. The hot wire should be the only wire to
light the tester with one probe on hot and one probe on ground. One probe
on hot and one probe on neutral should also light the tester.
So here is my idea . . .
1) Turn off circuit breaker. Disconnect both switches and spread the wires.
2) Turn on CBreaker. Without touching a wire with a bare hand, ID hot wire
using method above.
3) ID the neutral wire. Since the traveler wires do not complete a circuit
with the switches removed, the neutral is the only wire besides ground that
should light the tester when the other probe is on the hot wire.
4) The remaining 2 wires should be the travelers.

Did I mess anything up or forget anything?
Any help on this is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Andy

"Matt" wrote in message
ps.com...
Can't help you from what info is provided. Bottom line is that for it
to work, there must be 1 wire going from each switches' brass screw, to
the brass screw on the other switch; so that you have 2 wires running
between the switches.

These are called 'travellers', and it doesn't matter which brass screw
on one switch is hooked to which brass screw on the other switch.

Now you are left with 2 black screws, 1 on each switch. One black screw
gets hooked to hot, and the other black screw gets hooked to the light.


Finally, somewhere in either of the 2 switch boxes, or the ceiling box,
the light will get fed it's neutral. It all depends on how the wiring
is pulled.

Your best bet is to first identify your incoming hot/neutral, and work
from there.