How To Repair A Pull Chain Switch

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If your ceiling fan pull chain is cleaved because it was pulled out of the switch, there's an like shooting fish in a barrel fashion to gear up it. Open up the switch in the ceiling fan and remove the cleaved slice of chain before replacing information technology with a longer one. If your switch is completely broken, purchase a replacement at a local hardware store earlier removing the old one and installing the new switch. Make certain you turn the power source off earlier taking apart the ceiling fan to be safe.

1
Turn the ability off at the excursion breaker for safety. Locate your circuit breaker, likely either in the basement, a cupboard, or even outside the business firm. Open up the circuit breaker and turn the power off for the room where you lot'll be working with the ceiling fan to make sure electricity isn't however flowing when yous're removing the fan'southward parts.^[1]
- If you're not sure which switch is for the room with the ceiling fan, plough off the main ability just to exist safe.
2

Remove the light bulbs to forestall them from breaking. Ready upwardly a ladder or step stool if necessary to reach the ceiling fan easily. Unscrew the light bulbs advisedly and identify them on a towel nearby. If the ceiling fan has whatever sconces or globes, remove these equally well by unscrewing them or using a screwdriver to remove any screws.^[2]

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iii
Employ a screwdriver to remove the screws belongings the low-cal fixture in place. The ceiling fan'southward fixture, or the main housing where the wiring is stored, will be held together with a few visible screws. Use a screwdriver to accept out these screws, loosening the fixture to see the wiring and switch.^[iii]
- Gear up the screws and detachable fixture piece aside in a safe place to reattach them afterwards.
4

Unscrew the nut on the side of the fixture that holds the switch. Wait on the outside of the fixture for a small nut. Unscrew this nut to remove information technology completely, letting you access the ceiling fan pull chain switch. Set the nut aside for safekeeping.^[4]
v
Pull out the switch to inspect the concatenation more closely. Now that the switch is loosened from the fixture, look at it upwardly close. If the wiring of the switch is broken, supplant information technology completely. Leverage the switch open using a screwdriver to encounter if the concatenation just needs to exist replaced with a longer piece, or if information technology would be best to get a new switch all together.^[five]
- If the concatenation looks replaceable, use a longer length of chain you lot already have to gear up it instead of purchasing some other one.
- If the switch looks broken, visit a local hardware shop to buy a replacement.
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ane
Popular open the switch using a small screwdriver. Leverage open the tabs along the switch using a screwdriver. Once you carve up it into its 2 pieces, the things inside of it, like the chain and bound, will be visible. With the switch open, remove it from the wiring past pulling the wires out from the switch.^[6]
- Exist careful not to lose any of the pieces when you pop the switch open.
- If you don't run into the spring and concatenation, popular off the protective plate holding them inside the switch.
2

Remove the broken piece of concatenation from the mechanism. Remove the contents of the switch, including the broken slice of chain connected to a disc and the spring. All of the contents within the switch will be loose, making it easy to simply accept them out. Pop the broken chain off of the disc using a screwdriver. Discard the broken chain afterwards you've removed it.^[7]
three

Put a longer piece of chain in the old chain'southward spot. Only as yous removed the short cleaved chain, popular a longer concatenation that will reach through the fixture into place in the old chain's spot. Snap the longer chain into the disc where the broken concatenation was using your fingers.^[viii]
iv
Reassemble the switch by putting the chain and spring back into identify. Put the spring and chain attached to the disc back into the switch. Pull the chain through the pigsty in the switch and so y'all can pull on it hands. If y'all popped off a protective plate that holds everything together, printing this back into place too.^[9]
- Hold down the spring and chain mechanism using your finger or a screwdriver so information technology doesn't pop up while you're attaching the two main switch pieces together.
- The 2 switch halves volition printing back into each other hands.
v

Place the switch back inside the fixture and reattach the switch nut. Put the switch back in the wires simply every bit you took it out. Brand sure you place the switch next to the spot where you unscrewed the nut from the outside of the fixture. Screw the nut back into place to hold the switch.^[10]

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1
Buy a replacement switch at your local home improvement store. Either take a film of your old switch and then you know which one to purchase, or disassemble the onetime switch and have it with you. Await for a "fan light switch" or something labeled similarly.^[11]
- Ask an employee at the abode improvement or hardware shop for help if yous're not sure which switch to purchase.
2
Disconnect the wires attached to the old switch. Pulling or twisting off the connectors that concur together the wires will disconnect them from the old switch. Remove each wire that's attached to the erstwhile switch by pulling off the connectors, and take the onetime switch out.^[12]
- Accept a picture of which wires are continued to the switch earlier disassembling it to reference the motion picture when putting it dorsum together.
iii

Strip 0.5–0.75 in (1.three–1.nine cm) of insulation off of the wires to attach them. Use a wire stripper to strip the insulation off of the ends of the wires attached to the new switch, cutting into the insulation with the stripper before pulling it towards the stop of the wire to remove it. This will allow the electrical connection to pass through the wires.^[thirteen]
4
Twist the wires together and cover them with connectors. Locate the old wires that your new wires volition attach to and twist them together tightly using a clockwise motion. Many wires are color-coded, making it piece of cake to match the correct wires together. Cover the bare wire with a twist-on connector, making sure the unabridged blank wire is covered.^[14]
- Refer to the picture y'all took of the wires the old switch connected to, if needed.
- Twist-on connectors are also called wire basics and can be found at your local hardware store.
5

Put the new switch into the fan housing to reattach the nut on the outside. Since you removed the small nut on the outside of the fixture that holds the switch in place earlier, information technology's time to reattach it. Concord the switch inside the fixture, and screw the nut back on to the outside of the fixture to agree the switch in place.^[15]

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1
Hold the fixture over the wiring and screw it back into place. With your switch replaced, place the part of the fixture that y'all removed back into place on pinnacle of the wiring. Concord information technology steady and use the screws to screw information technology back in using a screwdriver.^[16]
- Ask someone to concord the fixture in place while you lot spiral the screws back in, if desired.
2

Put the lightbulbs back into the fixture if needed. If you removed whatsoever globes or sconces that went around the bulbs, reattach these kickoff either by twisting them dorsum on or using a screwdriver to reinstall the screws. Pick upwards the lightbulbs and carefully twist each one back into place in the fixture.^[17]
3

Plough the power dorsum on through the breaker. Render to the circuit breaker and flip the switch that turns dorsum on the power. If your circuit breaker isn't labeled, make sure you turned the right ability back on past testing the lite switch in the ceiling fan room.^[xviii]
4
Test the pull chain to see if it works. Flip the power switch in the room if necessary to plow the fan on. Now that your ceiling fan pull chain switch is fully installed, pull on it gently to run into if it works. If the lights come on or the fan starts to rotate, it's all fixed.^[xix]
- Avoid pulling on the chain using a lot of force because this is often how it breaks.
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Add together New Question

Question

If the concatenation just came off in my paw do I accept to buy a new switch or can I just put the concatenation dorsum on?

This happened to me 3 days agone. I had to buy a new 3-speed ceiling fan switch equally the concatenation that broke will NOT go back in the switch. You'll demand a big paper clip to become the wires in the terminal equally per the directions that came with the one I bought from Lowe'due south.
Question

How practise I know if the fan switch is working?

Y'all will need a ability tester with a lite. Check each terminal for power with the switch on and off -- if it lights up when you plough the switch on, it is a good switch.
Question

We want to connect a 3-speed wall switch to supercede the chain-pull switch on our ceiling fan. At some point at that place was a switch for a light, which was removed. There are four black wires inside the wall with wire basics on them. The new iii-speed switch has 2 black wires. How can nosotros tell what we are supposed to connect?

ii of the wires were for the light and 2 for the fan. Yous volition need a voltage tester light to see which ones are power, unless 2 or 3 of the blackness wires are wired together, then those would be the power and the other black wires would be for the fan or light.
Question

My pull concatenation is threaded through the threaded stock that holds the low-cal cover on, where is the switch? How do I get to it?

First, plow off the breaker or fuse for this electrical area. Remove the light encompass. Look for screws that concur the calorie-free plate in. Go along one hand below the plate and concord onto it as you unscrew the screws. Manus the screws to someone, or drib into a pants' pocket. The unit y'all are looking for will be within the housing.

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Things You'll Need

Ladder
Screwdriver

New chain

Wire stripper
Replacement switch
Twist-on connectors

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Disconnect the electricity by turning off the ability before handling the ceiling fan.

About This Article

Commodity Summary X

To replace a ceiling fan pull switch, you'll need to remove the former switch, detach the wires, and attach a new switch directly to the terminals. To start, turn off the excursion breaker that leads to your fan, and so you don't hazard electrocuting yourself. Then, remove the embrace on the fan and unscrew the nut on the exterior of the pull switch, so you tin pull it out. Brand sure you write down the colors of each wire and which terminals they connect to, since you'll need this information later. Once you've removed the pull switch, accept it to a dwelling improvement store, and buy a new ane. The new switch should exist identical in size, number of speeds, and wattage, or else information technology won't be compatible. When you adhere the new switch, refer to your notes then you tin can connect the colored wires to the advisable terminals. Once they're attached, screw the nuts back in, replace the fan encompass, and flip the circuit breaker dorsum on. To learn how to attach a new switch using wire nuts, read on!

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