Replacing old 4-way light switches

Malibukid71 · Jul 27, 2020

I can't figure out the light switches in my hallway. I thought it would be an easy job to replace them and now I've spent all weekend and still failing. The old switches (built in 1959) have terminals on the top and bottom and all screws are brass where the new rocker switches have them on the sides and have both brass and black screws. There are 4 switches involved; a single switch (which doesn't seem to operate anything) partially daisychained to a 3-way, connected to a 4-way, then connected to a 3-way. I do not know how the wires are run in the wall or the way the lights are wired in. Can someone please help? I've attached pictures as well as a quick diagram I drew up to try to wrap my head around what should be a simple upgrade. FR stands for front red wire, BW stands for Back White wire, B is simply Black, F is front, B is also back, BB is Back Black, FB is front Black, FW is Front White, W is just white wire.

Megawatt · Jul 28, 2020

Malibukid71 said:
I can't figure out the light switches in my hallway. I thought it would be an easy job to replace them and now I've spent all weekend and still failing. The old switches (built in 1959) have terminals on the top and bottom and all screws are brass where the new rocker switches have them on the sides and have both brass and black screws. There are 4 switches involved; a single switch (which doesn't seem to operate anything) partially daisychained to a 3-way, connected to a 4-way, then connected to a 3-way. I do not know how the wires are run in the wall or the way the lights are wired in. Can someone please help? I've attached pictures as well as a quick diagram I drew up to try to wrap my head around what should be a simple upgrade. FR stands for front red wire, BW stands for Back White wire, B is simply Black, F is front, B is also back, BB is Back Black, FB is front Black, FW is Front White, W is just white wire.

@malibukid in you 4 way switches should have 2 cables with a black, white and ground unless they used 14/3 romex then you would have a red just the 2 screws on both sides should be matched with the same color on the opposite side

Malibukid71 · Jul 31, 2020

Megawatt said:
@malibukid in you 4 way switches should have 2 cables with a black, white and ground unless they used 14/3 romex then you would have a red just the 2 screws on both sides should be matched with the same color on the opposite side

I was able to get them wired and working somewhat. I will post a picture of a diagram i drew below. The current issue is i can't control them all fully from every switch. Ex. Of i have the 4-way in the off position I can't turn the lights on from either of the 3 ways or if I have the 4 way in the on position then turn the lights off at one of the 3 ways I can't turn them back on with the other 3 way.

Megawatt · Aug 1, 2020

Malibukid71 said:
I was able to get them wired and working somewhat. I will post a picture of a diagram i drew below. The current issue is i can't control them all fully from every switch. Ex. Of i have the 4-way in the off position I can't turn the lights on from either of the 3 ways or if I have the 4 way in the on position then turn the lights off at one of the 3 ways I can't turn them back on with the other 3 way.

If you don’t have the 4 way wired they are never going to work. Do yo have a meter and have you changed any wiring on the 3 ways

Malibukid71 · Aug 2, 2020

Megawatt said:
If you don’t have the 4 way wired they are never going to work. Do yo have a meter and have you changed any wiring on the 3 ways

I have a meter but don't know how to use it. The old switches gave no indications on what was what so I kinda took a guess. I drew a diagram of how the old ones where wired and one of how I wired them and posted the above.

Megawatt · Aug 2, 2020

Malibukid71 said:
I have a meter but don't know how to use it. The old switches gave no indications on what was what so I kinda took a guess. I drew a diagram of how the old ones where wired and one of how I wired them and posted the above.