Can Anyone Help me With a Ceiling Rose Change for Bedroom Light? Ask questions and find answers to many subjects relating to electrics and electrical work

[biscuitcase]

Hello, I'd very much appreciate some help over an embarrassingly simple problem. It's replacing a ceiling rose. My bedroom light is just a bog standard pendant and it suddenly stopped working, so I got a replacement 'Pendant set' labelled 'Pre-wired clear base 6" pendant T2 100W'.

I read up on wiring and watched some great youtube videos, then I turned off the power and unscrewed the old ceiling rose cap. The problem looked to be the rather worn pendant itself, so I thought I could hopefully save having to unscrew the actual old base from the ceiling and just try replacing the light - so i took the old light off (just the two wires - left the rest alone) and screwed in the new light, and it worked! And I felt very happy... for about 2 minutes.

Then I went to just screw the covering cap back over the base and I found that the new rose cap was too small to screw over it. So, power off again, and I decided to unscrew and just use the old cap. So I reconnected the wires all over again, and it worked! And then I realised that I'd threaded the old base on to the pendant the wrong way round.

I know, but my arms were aching and my neck kept locking and I was getting dizzy and I'm pretty thick to start with. Anyway... I just couldn't get it reconnected a third time and the light was failing and the food in the fridge I was worried about, so I gave up for the night and cried a bit (okay a lot) at my own stupidity.

Today I'm going to try to get it done a third time, but I think I may have overworked one of the small terminal screws in the old rose which connects the brown wire of the pendant - it just won't thread anymore so the wire keeps slipping out no matter how hard I try to screw it in. I don't have another hand to help hold it in place while I screw, and I haven't a lot of strength at the best of times, so I'm not sure I'll be able to get it sorted out.

I think I may have to take the whole base off and put the new ceiling rose base on and reconnect all the wires. The problem is that I've just had a look at the new base - I thought I'd carefully loosen the little terminal screws in case I needed it. And I can't loosen 5 of the 8 screws at all. I can loosen the two in the lefthand L block, and the far right of the three in the N block (the screws that would correspond to the two for the light and the switch live?), but the other five screws appear to be fixed - the central 3 Loop screws and the first two of the righthand N block.

Have I bought the wrong base altogether? Or can I just not use a screwdriver?

I'm very sorry to ask daft questions, I just don't have anyone else to help. I've uploaded a couple of pics of the new base from the ceiling rose. If I've bought the wrong type, what should I ask for instead? Any advice hugely appreciated, thank you!

[Mr White]

The ceiling rose you have purchased looks acceptable to me. Often the screws are tightened by machine, why not hold a screwdriver on the terminal and turn the rose instead?

[biscuitcase]

The ceiling rose you have purchased looks acceptable to me. Often the screws are tightened by machine, why not hold a screwdriver on the terminal and turn the rose instead?

Thank you very much for the reply, Mr. White. I tried everything but they just wouldn't budge and I was worried I'd damage the screws (or the screwdriver tip) and I was beginning to wonder if there was another type of ceiling rose for old-fashioned wiring like I have and that this one was something new-fangled for people using those little block connector things (?). But later today I gave the rose to a friend and after 10 minutes of huffing and puffing he managed to loosen one of the middle screws. He's a big bloke, too. I guess they're just not very friendly for people without much in the way of muscle.

Happy ending, though - I managed to get the tiny over-worked screw out of the base on the ceiling and after much finickety fiddling and dropping the screw about a hundred times, I managed to get it to thread and hold the brown L pendant wire. I was too scared of dislodging it to pull it into the cord grip, I just screwed the cap on quickly and ... well, it works, so I will happily take that! It's just a bald light bulb (cant risk the weight of the shade on it) but I'm just relieved to have a functioning bedroom again so I'm not fiddling anymore! I presume the old light had just finally died and the actual wiring is hopefully still sound. I'm hoping that replacing the light means I no longer run through light bulbs at the rate of about one a month. They'd been blowing quite regularly.

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply - I really was at my wits' end this morning, and your response is much appreciated. Cheers. :)