I'm trying to fix a light fixture for a friend. Her father-in-law gummed it up. At the fixture, there are 3 white wires soldered to a single wire. There are 3 black individual wires and one red wire. There are three switches that control the light.If I hook one of the black and the 3 white to the light, the light stays on constantly. If I hook either of the two other black individually, nothing comes on period.I'm pretty much at a loss. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Your wiring involves 2-3/way and 1-4/way switches plus a likely additional power circuit inside the junction box. Your wiring description does not contain enough info for anyone to instruct you in correct reconnection. You need to either call an electrician or let your friend's father-in-law fix it. Remember saying I don't know how to do this is nothing to be ashamed of.
the white wire is neutral and hooks to the white on the light the black wire you had hooked when the light stayed on is the feed wireit hooks to either the other the other red or one of the black wires depending on how the switchjes are wired. i would try hooking the feed black to the red and the other 2 black to the black light
There are three switches that control the light? Remove the cover for those switches and check what color wiring is connected to them. If you have 3 blacks, two could be power to the switches, and the other is line voltage from the panel. The red could be a runner for a 3 pole switch. Whites are neutrals. Trial and error unless you start tracing out wires.
USA Sounds to me that what you have is 1 two conductor (black/white) cable as a power feed, 1 two conductor tap taking power somewhere else, and 1 three conductor (black, white, red) taking power to and back from a switch. All the whites get joined together, with a pigtail to the light. Make sure you have a tester. Find the black wire that is always energized, and mark it. Find the black and red that are in the same cable; mark them. I think what you have is they ran power to the light instead of the switch, then took the power down to the switch on the black conductor, and back from the switch to the light on the red conductor. Take the black that is always hot, and splice it to the other two blacks. Do not take it to the light. Hook the red to the light. If this does not work, reverse the red and black that go to the switch. This will take power to the switch on the red, and back from the switch on the black.
