1950 switch wiring
 

1950 wiring- three way switch 2 blues and one orange- what is which!?!?

Sounds like the blues are the travelers, but there are many ways to wire 3-ways.
If you have an incandescent bulb with a pigtail socket and a voltmeter you can run some tests.

prob is that the boys have tried thatand they still can't figure out which to wire to where on the new switch... The blues run hot depending on which way the other switch is flipped

You have to watch out for Phantom Voltages [see Wikipedia] which almost any voltmeter or tester responds to. That's what the incand. bulb is for; it kills phantom voltages.

the top switch (the one we're working on) only works if the bottom switch is on and there are 2 spare wires in the box that aren't connected to anything

and I've bee corrected- they're using a multimeter

and the cursing has ensued! Hahaha

Here's a no-drama way to test this.

The controlled bulb and the test bulb should be the same wattage incand. bulb.

Substitute the test bulb for the switch. If the both bulbs light dimly, 'cause they're running on 60v, a hard wire connection or closed switch contacts will not cause problems.

Try both switch positions and run the test lamp from each blue wire one at a time to the orange wire, four tests total.



Tracing wires that don't seem to go anywhere is next week's or next month's post!