Ceiling light problem

[Alecit]

Okay people, i am no electrician so please bar with me on the electrical terminology. However i do know how to change any simple light from old to new. But unfortunately i have run into a problem.i removed the old light, then notice that there were exactly 7 cables up there. I had three that were ll connected to each other with a fourth wire coming out of it for i guess the negative or positive wire. (I could not tell, no colors, very old building) on the other side i had 4 more cables, 2 of them i definitely know are the live power wires. because i connected a bulb to just those 2 and the bulb lite. Hoever i had another two which are from the light next to it down the hallway. The first 3 wires that werea ll connected came from the bathroom light and the kitchen light. Now my problem is that the same swith (2-way i guest) that control the kitchen light has another one right under it that suppose to control the hallway light i am trying to install. Now my problem is that the light goes on but the switch doen't work anymore. it does not turn it off or on. the light just stay on...what should i do. SOOOOOOOOOOO sOOOO sorry for the long quetion but like i mentioned i'm no electricianand do not knoe the termanology to make this any shorter. Pleease help. it is well appreciated..

 

[plugwash]

ahh the typical newbie mistake

always label stuff before removing the existing fitting unless you know exactly whats going on

you say 7 cables do you mean 7 sheathed cables each with several cores or do you mean 7 individual cores

 

[Alecit]

Umm, yeah your right i should have labeled them. Okay, now when you say "core" i really don't know what you mean. But i do know that these are very old wires and they are all seperated and have i believe rubber over them then this cloth like material over the rubber. The wire inside is not like todays wore which are flexible. theses wires are the hard ones that hardly bend and if you bend too much, it can break off. Is this any help? what can i do now?

 

[plugwash]

its probablly a good idea to get a local sparky in to confirm this in but if we found wiring like that in the uk it would defaintely be considered time for a rewire

and with no color coding it is going to require considerable testing to find the problem

unless you are very competent with a multimeter you will need to get someone in and i strongly suspect that they will advise reqiring and may even refuse to work on the old (and probablly dangerous) wiring you have in place

 

[Alecit]

yeah i figure that, thanky ou very much. I am goignt o get a test meter today and do so. Your help was still helpful, thank you so much. I will keep in touch if i run into any other problems.