![]() A socket with a plastic outer shell didn’t fit in our socket housing, but a brass socket with a brass outer shell was a perfect match.Ĭonnect new wire to the replacement socket, considering your fixture’s needs. (If the rings are damaged, they’ll need to be replaced.)ĭepending on the age of your fixture, finding a replacement socket may be a process of trial and error. The socket in our fixture was brass with a cardboard lining and a turnkey screwed into place, but some sockets may have retaining rings to hold them in place. Once the wires have been removed, some socket housings may be connected mainly by the wires, and can detach (ours did). Some fixtures only have a cap that needs unscrewing others have wiring that’s easily exposed once a dome shade is removed. To expose the wires for our ceiling fixture, we had to unscrew the cap and chain at the top, then separate the top pan of the fixture’s main body by gently loosening it with a screwdriver. Next, you’ll want to access the wires in the fixture and disconnect them from the fixture. Our fixture was installed onto a now-defunct gas pipe by a nipple that was threaded on two sides. (If the chandelier is particularly heavy or delicate, you may need a helper.) Modern fixtures are attached to the ceiling by an electrical box, with the threaded nipple run through a mounting strap. Unscrew the chandelier from the threaded nipple and take down the ceiling fixture. Support the fixture as you do this never let a fixture hang by electrical wires. Once you’re sure the electricity is off, remove the wire connectors and unwrap any electrical tape to disconnect the fixture’s wires from the ceiling. If it glows, return to the service panel to find the correct circuit breaker to turn off. Once the nut or screws are lose, slide the canopy down the chain.īe certain the power is no longer flowing test the fixture’s wires with a circuit tester. Many fixtures have canopies held in place by a retaining nut our bell-shaped canopy was attached by three mounting screws that pressed against, but didn’t screw into, a brass shaft. Unscrew the retaining nut or mounting screws on the ceiling canopy. Turn off the power to the fixture at the service panel, and remove any shades. In addition, almost all of the sockets were original-and most of them were starting to fail.īecause we had some experience with electrical work-we had run wiring, installed light switches, and hung fixtures during our years of home restoration-my husband and I decided to rewire the fixtures ourselves. A few of the fixtures had been rewired some 30 years ago, but most still had the original wiring. The lighting fixtures in our Colonial Revival-style home in Staten Island, New York, were installed when the house was converted from gas to electricity in 1920. It was time, we realized, to rewire and change the sockets of our brass lighting fixture, one of many that was beginning to fail in our circa-1900 house. My husband, Todd, and I had already examined the bulb and the light switch for faults, and found none. The author’s brass 1920s chandelier flickers no more after an adroit rewiring project.Īs I watched one of the bulbs in my living room’s antique ceiling fixture flicker on and off yet again, I ticked off a mental checklist of potential repairs.
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