Help with Outside Garage Lighting

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The red wire is part of the cable that the power goes off with the switch so we will be looking for a red wire in one of the outside lights. If we don't find it there we have another switch somewhere. Or at least something in another box somewhere.
 
Ok, thanks for all the help so far. I am learning a lot. So, my next step is to remove the garage fixtures and look for the wiring especially if the Red wire is there. Will do that tomorrow and let you know the results.
 
Ok, thanks for all the help so far. I am learning a lot. So, my next step is to remove the garage fixtures and look for the wiring especially if the Red wire is there. Will do that tomorrow and let you know the results.

If that cable is going to the lights there has to be a red wire in there.
 
How did the disconnected Red conductor in post #31, become connected in post #40?
 
I am not seeing that, he said it was short just showing near the clamp. And that is what I see.

Read the 3rd comment in post #31 and the comment regarding the red conductor in the photo.
 
Read the 3rd comment in post #31 and the comment regarding the red conductor in the photo.

Post 40 is confusing I guess I read it the way he meant it.
I read it as the red wire comes from the same cable as the black wire at the top of the switch. Does that make sense.

That is the load wire so there should be a red showing up in one of the light boxes or we will have a mystery.
 
I think the OP is not quite sure of himself and overly cautious.

This could wined up to be little more than conductors not twisted together in a wirenut.
 
I think maybe you should take a picture of the light fixtures themselves. You said they don't have a sensor. More than likely they may not. Well that is what I thought when I put up an outside light once for a customer. They handed me the light, I took it out of a box that it did not come in. I wired it, put it up and the side of the house by the door, flipped the switch and it did not work. Wow, simple connections. I took the light off and put my meter to the wires, flipped the switch and got 120v. put the light back up and nothing. took the bulb out and put my contact tested up in the fixture socket and no power with switch on. Then all of a sudden it hit me. This is a wall sconce but my eye caught something. It had a small sensor at the top of the light which just looked like the nut to hold the two parts of the fixture together. Duh!!. I put electrical tape over the sensor, flipped the switch and the light went on. Here is something like what I am talking about. Notice the very small sensor at the top of the light. HERE. Most people are used to looking for large sensors. These small sensors would be built in to the fixture and more than likely if one went bad it would not cause the other light not to work if that had a sensor also.

Also, upon looking at some of the pictures it is hard for me to tell what conductors go where. One thing I did happen to notice is that there are two sets of white bundles wire nutted and two bundles of black wires bundled with wire nuts. This may lead me to think that there are two separate circuits in this box.

Also the switch on the far right looks like a different type of switch than the other two. Maybe a pic of the back of all the switches may be helpful.

You say there is conduit and it may contain the conductors for the outside lights. If this is the case there may be a junction box somewhere.
 
If that cable is going to the lights there has to be a red wire in there.
Not necessarily true. If the red is a runner between two switches, it might not show up at the lights.
OP: Have you simply jumped (bypassed) the switch all together to see if the lights will work?
 
Not necessarily true. If the red is a runner between two switches, it might not show up at the lights.
OP: Have you simply jumped (bypassed) the switch all together to see if the lights will work?

That is my point, if there is no other switches, this red wire will be at one light.
 
...assuming that cable goes to the lights in the first place; could be different run.

well it is the one that the switch turns on.
There are lot's of possibilities but I wanted to take the OP one step at a time.

As some one else did work on it before the OP got there and it never worked.
It could be the red wire should be in use.
Perhaps at one time there were two switches and some one killed the second switch.

I am just using the red wire as an identifier and the first obvious place to look for it is in the lights, before we have him open switch boxes all over the house.
 
I think maybe you should take a picture of the light fixtures themselves. You said they don't have a sensor. More than likely they may not. Well that is what I thought when I put up an outside light once for a customer. They handed me the light, I took it out of a box that it did not come in. I wired it, put it up and the side of the house by the door, flipped the switch and it did not work. Wow, simple connections. I took the light off and put my meter to the wires, flipped the switch and got 120v. put the light back up and nothing. took the bulb out and put my contact tested up in the fixture socket and no power with switch on. Then all of a sudden it hit me. This is a wall sconce but my eye caught something. It had a small sensor at the top of the light which just looked like the nut to hold the two parts of the fixture together. Duh!!. I put electrical tape over the sensor, flipped the switch and the light went on. Here is something like what I am talking about. Notice the very small sensor at the top of the light. HERE. Most people are used to looking for large sensors. These small sensors would be built in to the fixture and more than likely if one went bad it would not cause the other light not to work if that had a sensor also.

Also, upon looking at some of the pictures it is hard for me to tell what conductors go where. One thing I did happen to notice is that there are two sets of white bundles wire nutted and two bundles of black wires bundled with wire nuts. This may lead me to think that there are two separate circuits in this box.

Also the switch on the far right looks like a different type of switch than the other two. Maybe a pic of the back of all the switches may be helpful.

You say there is conduit and it may contain the conductors for the outside lights. If this is the case there may be a junction box somewhere.

5 cables, 3 switches, so there are 2 supplies.

for switch in question as far as I can figure is power in far right
power out second right with a red wire not in use.
 
The OP also continues to reference a non contact proximity voltage tester, which he needs to abandon and start using the VOM.
 
The OP also continues to reference a non contact proximity voltage tester, which he needs to abandon and start using the VOM.

What question has he had so far that hasn't been answered with what he has?

If he has to look for a mystery wire, a tone and probe would be a better tool.
 
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I read all the posts. Sorry if I wasn't clear on some stuff like the mentioned post 40. The wire with the RED has its black wire going to the top of the suspect switch. That suspect switch is the one on the far right.

I still haven't check the wiring for the lights yet as I worked late today and it's already dark when I got home. I will try to check tomorrow or on the weekend.

I did however use my non-contact volt checker to check the suspect conduit and coming out of the house and going into the garage. With the suspect switch in the on position I did not detect any voltage at the mentioned spots on the conduit. And yes I realize as mentioned I probably shouldn't be using this kind of checker but a multimeter instead. And maybe the checker I am using is not good enough to detect through the conduit, or it's not the suspect conduit at all.

Here is the conduit I checked. I should mention that I suspect this conduit because it is the newest looking one and small, so probably was installed after the garage was put up.

house-conduits-1588.jpg


thumb2_garage-conduits-1587.jpg
 
To answer another post about the style of lights. Here it is, it's a little far away but I do not see any sensors on them at all.

thumb2_garage-lights-1589.jpg
 
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