Ask the Question

bwstaton · Joined: 19 Jul 2003 Posts: 1 Location: Virginia

I have a problem with my electrical skills. I have a bathroom with a ceiling ligh and wall sconce, but no outlet. The wall sconce worked with a pull chain. I got the bright idea to put in a GFCI and switch to the new wall fixture. I put a junction box in the attic, pulled the ceiling light, wires to the bedroom (already connected to the bathroom ceiling fixture) up and connected them in the junction box with a wire going to the new gfci. I tapped into the gfci with two wires that go to the new switch then ran the wire from the switch to the new wall fixture useing a 2 pole switch so that everything has a black and white wire connected to it. Now the breaker throws everytime the wall light is turned on. The ceiling and outlet work fine. I read the troubleshooting instructions and it said that either the wires were reversed or the load wire is grounding out. Reversing the wires didn't solve the problem. The house has no ground in the old wires. (1950's) I connected the ground in the attic to the junction box with a screw and then to the gfci ground. When I ran the wires from the switch to the wall light I connected the ground to the switch and then the ground on the light fixture. I'm stumped and don't know what could be wrong here. Any ideas? TIA. BW