How To Repair A Pull Chain For A Ceiling Fan Light

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If your ceiling fan pull concatenation is broken because it was pulled out of the switch, there'due south an like shooting fish in a barrel manner to prepare it. Open up up the switch in the ceiling fan and remove the broken piece of chain earlier replacing it with a longer 1. 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 sure you turn the power source off before taking autonomously the ceiling fan to be safe.

1
Plough the power off at the circuit breaker for safety. Locate your circuit billow, likely either in the basement, a closet, or even outside the house. Open the circuit billow and turn the ability off for the room where you'll be working with the ceiling fan to make sure electricity isn't still flowing when yous're removing the fan's parts.^[i]
- If you're not sure which switch is for the room with the ceiling fan, plough off the main ability but to be condom.
2

Remove the low-cal bulbs to prevent them from breaking. Fix a ladder or step stool if necessary to achieve the ceiling fan easily. Unscrew the light bulbs carefully and place them on a towel nearby. If the ceiling fan has whatever sconces or globes, remove these too by unscrewing them or using a screwdriver to remove any screws.^[two]

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iii
Utilize a screwdriver to remove the screws belongings the light fixture in identify. The ceiling fan's fixture, or the master housing where the wiring is stored, will be held together with a few visible screws. Use a screwdriver to take out these screws, loosening the fixture to come across the wiring and switch.^[3]
- Prepare the screws and detachable fixture piece aside in a safety place to reattach them afterward.
4

Unscrew the nut on the side of the fixture that holds the switch. Await on the exterior of the fixture for a small nut. Unscrew this nut to remove it completely, letting you access the ceiling fan pull concatenation switch. Ready the nut aside for safekeeping.^[4]
5
Pull out the switch to inspect the chain more than closely. Now that the switch is loosened from the fixture, look at it up close. If the wiring of the switch is cleaved, replace information technology completely. Leverage the switch open using a screwdriver to see if the chain but needs to be replaced with a longer piece, or if information technology would be all-time to get a new switch all together.^[5]
- If the concatenation looks replaceable, use a longer length of chain you already take to set up information technology instead of purchasing another one.
- If the switch looks cleaved, visit a local hardware shop to buy a replacement.
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1
Pop open the switch using a small screwdriver. Leverage open the tabs along the switch using a screwdriver. In one case you divide it into its ii pieces, the things within of information technology, like the chain and spring, will be visible. With the switch open, remove it from the wiring by pulling the wires out from the switch.^[6]
- Be careful non to lose whatever of the pieces when you pop the switch open.
- If you don't see the spring and chain, pop off the protective plate property them inside the switch.
2

Remove the broken piece of chain 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 volition exist loose, making it easy to simply take them out. Pop the broken chain off of the disc using a screwdriver. Discard the broken chain after you've removed it.^[7]
3

Put a longer piece of concatenation in the onetime concatenation'southward spot. Just as yous removed the short cleaved chain, pop a longer chain that will achieve through the fixture into place in the old chain'southward spot. Snap the longer concatenation into the disc where the cleaved chain was using your fingers.^[8]
4
Reassemble the switch past putting the chain and leap dorsum into identify. Put the jump and chain attached to the disc back into the switch. Pull the chain through the hole in the switch so y'all can pull on it easily. If you popped off a protective plate that holds everything together, press this dorsum into place too.^[nine]
- Concord down the jump and chain mechanism using your finger or a screwdriver then it doesn't popular up while you lot're attaching the two main switch pieces together.
- The ii switch halves volition press back into each other easily.
v

Place the switch back inside the fixture and reattach the switch nut. Put the switch dorsum in the wires just as y'all took it out. Make sure you lot identify the switch next to the spot where you lot unscrewed the nut from the outside of the fixture. Screw the nut back into identify to hold the switch.^[10]

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1
Buy a replacement switch at your local home improvement store. Either accept a moving-picture show of your one-time switch so y'all know which ane to purchase, or disassemble the erstwhile switch and take information technology with you lot. Look for a "fan light switch" or something labeled similarly.^[11]
- Inquire an employee at the habitation improvement or hardware store for help if yous're non sure which switch to buy.
2
Disconnect the wires attached to the sometime switch. Pulling or twisting off the connectors that hold together the wires volition disconnect them from the onetime switch. Remove each wire that'southward attached to the old switch past pulling off the connectors, and take the erstwhile switch out.^[12]
- Take a picture of which wires are continued to the switch earlier disassembling it to reference the moving picture when putting it back together.
3

Strip 0.5–0.75 in (1.3–1.9 cm) of insulation off of the wires to attach them. Employ a wire stripper to strip the insulation off of the ends of the wires fastened to the new switch, cut into the insulation with the stripper before pulling it towards the end of the wire to remove it. This volition allow the electrical connection to pass through the wires.^[13]
iv
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 easy to match the right wires together. Cover the blank wire with a twist-on connector, making sure the unabridged bare wire is covered.^[14]
- Refer to the picture you took of the wires the old switch connected to, if needed.
- Twist-on connectors are also called wire nuts and can be constitute at your local hardware store.
5

Put the new switch into the fan housing to reattach the nut on the outside. Since you lot removed the small nut on the outside of the fixture that holds the switch in identify earlier, it'southward time to reattach it. Hold the switch within the fixture, and spiral the nut back on to the outside of the fixture to hold the switch in place.^[15]

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1
Hold the fixture over the wiring and screw information technology dorsum into place. With your switch replaced, identify the role of the fixture that you lot removed back into place on elevation of the wiring. Hold it steady and use the screws to spiral information technology dorsum in using a screwdriver.^[16]
- Enquire someone to agree the fixture in place while you screw 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 beginning either by twisting them back on or using a screwdriver to reinstall the screws. Pick upwardly the lightbulbs and carefully twist each one back into identify in the fixture.^[17]
iii

Plow the ability back on through the billow. Return to the circuit billow and flip the switch that turns back on the power. If your circuit breaker isn't labeled, make sure you turned the right power back on by testing the light switch in the ceiling fan room.^[18]
4
Examination the pull chain to see if information technology works. Flip the ability switch in the room if necessary to turn the fan on. At present that your ceiling fan pull chain switch is fully installed, pull on it gently to see if information technology works. If the lights come on or the fan starts to rotate, information technology'southward all fixed.^[19]
- Avert pulling on the chain using a lot of force because this is oft how it breaks.
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Add New Question

Question

If the chain just came off in my hand do I have to buy a new switch or can I just put the chain dorsum on?

This happened to me three days ago. I had to buy a new three-speed ceiling fan switch as the concatenation that broke will NOT go back in the switch. You'll need a big paper clip to get the wires in the terminal as per the directions that came with the ane I bought from Lowe's.
Question

How do I know if the fan switch is working?

You volition need a power tester with a calorie-free. Bank check each final for power with the switch on and off -- if it lights upwards when y'all turn the switch on, it is a practiced switch.
Question

We want to connect a 3-speed wall switch to supplant the concatenation-pull switch on our ceiling fan. At some point there was a switch for a low-cal, which was removed. There are iv black wires within the wall with wire nuts on them. The new iii-speed switch has 2 blackness wires. How can we tell what we are supposed to connect?

2 of the wires were for the light and 2 for the fan. Yous will demand a voltage tester light to encounter which ones are ability, unless 2 or three of the black wires are wired together, then those would be the power and the other blackness wires would exist for the fan or low-cal.
Question

My pull chain is threaded through the threaded stock that holds the light cover on, where is the switch? How do I get to it?

Starting time, turn off the breaker or fuse for this electric area. Remove the lite encompass. Look for screws that hold the light plate in. Keep one hand below the plate and concord onto it every bit you unscrew the screws. Manus the screws to someone, or drop into a pants' pocket. The unit you are looking for will be inside the housing.

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Things Y'all'll Need

Ladder
Screwdriver

New chain

Wire stripper
Replacement switch
Twist-on connectors

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

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Article Summary X

To replace a ceiling fan pull switch, you'll need to remove the old switch, detach the wires, and attach a new switch directly to the terminals. To start, plough off the circuit breaker that leads to your fan, and then you don't risk electrocuting yourself. Then, remove the embrace on the fan and unscrew the nut on the outside of the pull switch, so you tin pull it out. Make sure you write downwards the colors of each wire and which terminals they connect to, since y'all'll need this information later. Once you lot've removed the pull switch, accept it to a home comeback store, and purchase a new one. The new switch should be identical in size, number of speeds, and wattage, or else it won't be compatible. When you lot adhere the new switch, refer to your notes so you tin connect the colored wires to the advisable terminals. In one case they're attached, screw the basics dorsum in, supercede the fan cover, and flip the circuit breaker back on. To larn how to attach a new switch using wire nuts, read on!

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