Track lights

Okie · 07-05-2011, 06:55 PM

I have a problem with my track lights in the kitchen area. The other day when I turned on the switch the light over the door came on but the track lights didn't. They are on the same switch. I tryed to demonstraight it to DW and they came on with the switch. Later it didn't work again. I am thinking loose wire some where. Has anyone traced this wiring before? Running from the switch by the door to the track lights themselves?

Okie

terry and jo · 07-05-2011, 07:37 PM

Hey, Neighbor Larry!!! We may be a bit further away now, but we are still neighbors in a sense. We are in a mobile home park just north of Remington Park.

As for the lights, if I remember correctly, doesn't a track light use the bracket in which they are attached as the ground? It seems that something like that was necessary for them to be able to move around but still have both hot and ground. Then again, maybe they now run a double wire. It has been a long time since I had anything to do with them.

But, if there isn't a double wire to each light, maybe the bracket needs to be "tightened" up to still be able to act as the ground.

Terry

edt · 07-05-2011, 11:17 PM

We had a bad connection behind light above door 1117 ck3 04

RonS · 07-06-2011, 10:40 AM

I took off the living room end of the track, pushed on the copper tips and has worked now for a couple years. My peoblem is one of the lights can not get the ground to work without wiggling it each time. I have bent the tabs everywich way but will not stay on. Any ideas???

hitchup · 07-06-2011, 10:41 AM

Our 2006 ES track lights would do the same thing. We figured it was because they would overheat and not turn on.

We solved it when he pulled down the lights and cleaned the connections and retightened. They had turned dark, so overheating definitely seemed to be the problem.

Eventually, we traded the ES for the MS and no more problems. LOL

RonS · 07-06-2011, 04:21 PM

What did you clean them with? Track or light?
Thanks Ron

Dick D · 07-06-2011, 09:02 PM

I had to replace the track on mine. You can get the tracks at Lowe's. The tracks are not voltage specific, so the track can be used for 120 or 12V.

They can be a "pain" to get to work right. The 12V doesn't seem to want to make a good connection, so you have to play with them to get them to work right (connect to the track correctly).

RonS · 07-06-2011, 10:04 PM

Did you also replace the lights? And can you put hallagin (SP) bulbs in the lights we now have?

Dick D · 07-06-2011, 10:41 PM

No, I used the new track and the old lights that I had. I might have replaced the lights, but couldn't find an 12V one's. All I could find were 120V.
The track is the same. If the bulbs are MR 16 then you can use either Halogen or LED.
I used the LED's as my original bulbs were 30 watt Halogen's and I could replace all 3 with about 6 watts of LED and get about the same amount of light. After a lot of jiggling to get the lights to make proper contact with the new track (same problem with the old track, but couldn't get it to work at all) for any length of time.
We like to boon dock in the winter at Quartzite so I've slowly replaced most of the lights with LED"s, but there is a learning curve on using the right type of LED. Watch for what Kelven color the LED's are, and the Lumen s, so you can match them with your original bulbs. I like the warm white color at about 3000 K. It does not have any blue color to make your woodwork look funny.
This is probably more information than you wanted to know, but it's worth what you paid for it.

Okie · 07-08-2011, 01:34 PM

Thanks for all the feedback. I haven't had a chance to get back to it yet but I will let you all know what I find.

Okie

**wingnut60** · 07-09-2011, 08:44 PM

Several years ago there was a thread on this forum about this same problem, and my lights quit working also. The poster said he solved the problem by bending the contact ends under the plate where the track starts. I did this and my lights have been working ever since.

Joe

stanleyz · 09-04-2011, 08:22 PM

Another thing to look for is the piece on the end of the track away from the bedroom end. It can come loose and allow the copper tracks to slip away from the contacts on the switch end. just a small phillips head screw to retighten as you push the end piece in.

Okie · 09-13-2011, 04:39 PM

I told you all I would let you know what I found for the fix on my track light some time ago. In the mean time while on a trip to Nebraska they had a really bad hail storm here at the stick house. A complete whiteout with golf ball size hail. A short while after we got home they checked my roof and it was trashed. Just got it taken care of a week ago. Had to wait for all the others. While they were doing the roof one of the workers went in the attic to check the skylight shaft and that's when I saw his foot come through the ceiling. I had to fix that so I thought I would send the fix out to you guys in case you had this kind of problem. So I attached the fix. The problem with the track light turned out to be a bad lug connection on the ground line, just recrimped it and it is fine.

Okie · 09-13-2011, 04:45 PM

I tried to add an attachment but didn't work trying again. Now I see we can't add any more attachments. Guess I can't show you how I taped up the hole in the ceiling.
Okie