DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hi,

I haven't got much experience at this, but I want to put in a two-way light switch (2 gang) where there had been one before, but now there are just the wires. They control two separate lights in the kitchen.

Problem is I don't know which wire is which. There are four wires, and all have red sleeving, but two also have grey sleeving over the red. (So as a result, they're slightly thicker, but the wire itself is the same gauge.) I've determined that one of the wires without the grey sleeving is live, so I'm okay with that. I put that in the "common" terminal of one switch, and used a short link wire across to the common of the other switch. But how to connect up the others. I have three wires left, and four terminals to connect them to. I don't want to use the trial and error method. Can anyone help?

Thanks

Flatcar
Different ways to do this,
So you have four cables coming in to the switch all with red insulation over the copper wire.
Then two of these cables have a grey pvc sheath around them, is that correct?
The two with grey sheath put in to the commons on the switch plate one in one and the other in the other.
The other two reds should go in to L1 again one in one side and the other in the other sid eof swicth.
So each switch has a grey/red in common and a red in L1
Put a link across Commons.
try the lights if not working correctly swap the reds in L1 over.
KB

KB

Thanks kbrownie. I managed to figure out yesterday that if I just experimented with the other (non-live) wires, I couldn't actually do damage. Either they were completely dead - connected to nothing - or else they were correctly connected to the neutral of the light. So at least they wouldn't short anything out. I got the lights working at the second attempt. But I now realize those grey-sleeved wires should have gone in the common terminals. I've got the switches wired upside down. So I'll have another go today. Thanks for the info.

No worries, glad your sorted.
KB