How to wire light fixture with dimmer and power wiring?

Question

I am replacing an old light fixture that has been connected to a switch box with dimmer. The house was built in around 1969 or 70. Not many updates to fixtures.

The existing wiring in the junction box is all whit/off white. I have identified the LIVE wires that are capped together and they were connected to a smooth wire from the old fixture ( the old fixture had three wires. Two that were connected but could be perferated apart. One feels smoother than the other. The third wire is copper and twisted around a screw attached to the support bracket.). The second wire (rougher feel) from the old fixture was connected to another single wire in the junction box. There is a third group of capped wires in the junction box that wasn't connected to anything.

The new fixture only has (4) black and (4) white wires. The wires are in sets directly from each light bulb socket. There is no copper wire like the old fixture. I don't know how to distinguish what should be attached to what.

Answer 1

The first thing that you need to do is figure out where the power is coming from and going to
The best situation is that it would be coming from the switch and going to the light
You would have 2 wires in your ceiling box a black and a white aka a hot and a neutral
Connections are all black to black and all white to white .
That's the easy one
The other possibility is that the power is coming through the ceiling box and going to the switch box
Here's what it could look like :
You will have at least 2 -3 wire splices as wires will go to other places
Your fixture will be wired like this
The white will go to one of those 3 wire splices
The black will go to the black wire returning from the switch
There will be a connection from one of those black 3 wire splices to the WHITE wire that provides power to the switch.
The white wire is supposed to have either black paint or tape on it to indicate that it's hot -but don't count on it.

Answer 2

At the light end of the wires, If there are two wires only there, connect one wire to the all of the black wires from the fixture and connect the other wire to all of the white wires from the fixture. It doesn't matter which way you connect them. The wire screwed to the metal box goes to the green wire from the fixture, if there is one. If there are more than those two wire plus the ground, you need to find someone who knows electricity to look at it.

As long as the switch is still working, leave those wires alone.

You did turn off the power first, right?

In a newer house the wires would be black (possibly red), white and green. The black (red) wire is power, the white wire is neutral and the green is ground.

For a light switch, the white wire goes from the switch box directly to the fixture. The black (red) wire goes into one side of the switch then out of other side of the switch and up to the fixture and allows you to turn the light on/off. The green wire is the ground circuit.

Answer 3

The copper wire is a ground and is really no necessary in a light. The black wires are the hot or power wires and the white is the neutral.

From what you are describing in the box the installer switched the neutral wires instead of the hot wires, which is wrong.

Assuming the power for the light is in the switch box, one black (hot) wire goes to one screw on the switch the second one goes to the other screw on the switch. The neutrals should be capped and tapped together.

In the ceiling box (there should be one there, if not put one in) all the blacks connect to the hot wire from the switch box and the whites to the neutral. Cap the wires and put a piece of tape around the cap and wire so it will not come loose.

Think of it as a circle, with the switch interrupting the flow of electricity. You can put a dimmer switch back in or a simple on and off switch, they install the same way. Again, be sure to cover your caps and screws (where you put the wires on the switch) with black electrical tape to prevent them from coming loose.