Ceiling lights that flicker or quit working often have a problem with the wiring. This is especially true with older fixtures which have fabric-insulated copper wires. If you like the design and want to keep the lighting fixture, then you can rewire it by installing a replacement socket, or even pair of sockets, which you find at electrical distribution outlets. The sockets have integral wiring which you just connect to the wires at the ceiling where the light fixture was installed. Rewiring a ceiling lighting gives a do-it-yourself fanatic an opportunity to do some basic wiring.
Removing the Light
Switch off the circuit breaker into the ceiling lighting fixture. Work from a stepladder and take out the planet and bulbs from the fixture. Normally, a world is secured at the rim of the fixture with three thumbscrews that stretch counterclockwise. Hold the underside of the world with one hand and also loosen the thumbscrews to eliminate the world.
Loosen and remove the large thumbscrew at the middle of the fixture’s base plate and lower the fixture to get the wiring connections in the ceiling box. If the fixture attaches at the bottom box with multiple screws rather than a thumbscrew, loosen the screws several turns and bend the base so the heads of the screws align with the holes at the conclusion of each slot at the base, and lower the fixture.
Unscrew the wire nuts which secure the ends of the light’s wires to the circuit’s wires. Detach the ends of each pair of wires. If the lighting has a ground wire, loosen the bottom screw inside the ceiling box where the wire attaches and pull on the end of the wire off the screw.
Rewiring the Light
Eliminate the first light socket assembly in the base of the fixture. Depending on the manufacturer, remove one or more screws to detach the socket assembly. Save the screws. Pull the assembly and attached wires from the base.
Attach a replacement double or single socket assembly into the base. Do this by inserting the ends of the wires in the assembly through the opening in which the old wires were removed. Then place the assembly to ensure that the machined holes for screws align with machine holes at the light’s base. Secure the assembly into the base with the saved screws.
Strip off 1/2 inch of insulation at the ends of the white and black wires on the socket assembly with wire pliers. Work from a ladder and then link the ends of each wire to the similar colored wires at the ceiling box with wire nuts. Connect the end of the ground wire to the green ground screw in the box.
Reattach the base of the fixture at the ceiling with the first thumbscrew or by tightening the screws at the slots around the base. Put in the lights and reattach the ground onto the base of the lighting fixture by tightening the small thumbscrews at the rim of the base.