switch problems?

[burlesot]

Okay, I must confess that this is probably a very basic question, but I am not an electrician, nor do I play one on TV.

Here it goes:

I have all my interior lighting done. My ONLY problem is that my porch lights, which are LED lights, need a switch to turn them on. I have them directly wired into my West Marine fuse panel at this time. Switch them on; they work.

I tried putting a rocker switch for them and every time I do so, the fuse pops. Obviously I'm doing something wrong.

Let me explain what I've tried. The switch has two terminals; one that is to the load + and one that is to the negative. This is obviously not working.

Then I tried putting both inline with the positive (having two red wires both going inline to the + terminal.)

When I look at wiring diagrams, like the one I am showing here, this seems to be the way the switches are wired. Can someone help me with this?

Thank you in advance!

[burlesot]

Forgot the picture

[les45]

If you are turning them on with the master switch then the lights are OK. Your hot (red) wire from the fuse block should go into one terminal of the rocker switch (after you disconnect it from the light fixture) and go out from the other terminal to the light fixture (where you removed the red wire). The ground or black wire from the light fixture remains connected to the ground buss.

[eamarquardt]

As I see it there are only two possibilities. One, if your switch housing is grounded and the switch is defective and when it is switched on it is connecting hot to ground. This explanation though is highly unlikely. It would require a switch housing to be grounded, unlikely, and the switch to defective, also unlikely.

Most likely you've installed the switch across your hot and ground versus in-line with the hot lead. This is a better bet.

Wire your light w/o your switch and get it working from your fuse panel. Then cut the wire from your fuse panel and connect your switch to the two ends of the wire you cut. That should do it.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Gus

[burlesot]

The light does work from the fuse panel; so I need to follow your directions and make sure the proper wire is connected to the switch. It's raining right now, but if I can get out there today I'll report back. As always, many, many thanks.

Todd