UK Took down light to fix pendant light. Wires are live but nothing works, not even the old light now

[brianmoooore]

I take it that your last pic. is the supply to the old light?
In that case, you don't have the usual problem when we get these threads of nine or more wires to sort at the lamp, but it does tell us (from the green sleeving), that the wiring is fairly old, and that the connections between the switch, supply and lamp cables are elsewhere, probably in a junction box.
It's very possible that in disturbing the cable you've pulled a wire from an already loose terminal in that junction box.

 

[LMbessy]

I take it that your last pic. is the supply to the old light?
In that case, you don't have the usual problem when we get these threads of nine or more wires to sort at the lamp, but it does tell us (from the green sleeving), that the wiring is fairly old, and that the connections between the switch, supply and lamp cables are elsewhere, probably in a junction box.
It's very possible that in disturbing the cable you've pulled a wire from an already loose terminal in that junction box.

I thought this too, now how the hell do I find it??? From the room above, under the floorboards?

 

[brianmoooore]

The first thing is that this wiring is 50 - 60 years old, so if typical of the rest of the wiring in this house, it might be time to start thinking about a rewire.
Yes, the normal way to access a joint box would be by lifting the floorboards above, so this is likely to involve some furniture shifting and carpet lifting, and hope that the boards haven't been covered in plywood, replaced by chipboard, etc.
Since moving the wire at the lamp end moved it at the j/box as well, it's likely that the offending item is in the same 400mm wide void under the boards as the lamp, so, once the boards are exposed, work out where exactly over the lamp is and inspect the area across the room at right angles to the direction of the boards. With luck, you'll see a (hopefully) short length of board that has obviously been lifted before, and will find your j/box under it. With even more luck, you'll see a length of board with "j/box below" painted on it.

 

[littlespark]

The joint box is usually on the landing, just at the top of the stairs…. But as above, you’ll need to lift carpets and boards to find it.

It will be a square or rectangle plastic box with all the grey twin and earth cables running into it.


It would be unlikely that the fault was here… but not impossible.
I would spend more time checking the connections at the switch and light fitting before pulling up boards.

Has there been any construction work where the cable might have been damaged?

 

[LMbessy]

The joint box is usually on the landing, just at the top of the stairs…. But as above, you’ll need to lift carpets and boards to find it.

It will be a square or rectangle plastic box with all the grey twin and earth cables running into it.


It would be unlikely that the fault was here… but not impossible.
I would spend more time checking the connections at the switch and light fitting before pulling up boards.

Has there been any construction work where the cable might have been damaged?

No thing has been done construction wise to that area of the house. What we did was take down the original light fitting/ bulb, wired up the new pendant light & then nothing. Checked power is going to all wires light switch end and ceiling light end - there is. Even hard wired the old light fitting up (I know I know) - still nothing. All other downstairs lights work fine.
So after a few hours, put everything back as it was - still nada. So frustrating!!!!!

 

[brianmoooore]

The joint box is usually on the landing, just at the top of the stairs…. But as above, you’ll need to lift carpets and boards to find it.

It will be a square or rectangle plastic box with all the grey twin and earth cables running into it.

I know the sort of box you mean, but I associate these with earlier wiring, often VR. I think I've even seen them used with lead sheathed, and some with cable clamps as well.
I reckon this is more likely to be a round 4 terminal box with a screw on lid and used one per light.

 

[littlespark]

Never seen the round joint boxes being used in this way. Just as addons later on, or maybe a single room where running more than one cable would be a problem.

From my experience, and this could be a location thing, but lighting circuits have either been central joint box, loop in at light, or nowadays, loop in at switch.

This is only for t&e and 3c&e cables.

Older properties may have been done in steel conduit and singles.

 

[brianmoooore]

Must be regional differences - we live and work at opposite ends of the country. The vast majority of rewires I did back in the day were from a mixture of VR, polypropylene and two core PVC to PVC T&E, and nearly all were originally wired with one four terminal j/box to each light.
Never seen conduit in a domestic property to this day.

 

[mainline]

Round junction boxes are very common in the UK for lighting installations