OK, I am pretty handy around the house, but electrical stuff makes my head hurt sometimes.

I can swap/install ceiling fans, fixtures, Garage door openers, etc. no problem as long as everything works, but if it doesn't, I am lost.

I am trying to replace an old motion sensor floodlight with a non sensor bulb setup. The old motion light had a wall switch for on/off in the house. I took the old motion floodlight housing down (disconnected the hot, neutral and ground) and replaced the old halogen (unknown wattage bulbs) bulb-fixtures with standard (E32) LED floodlight fixtures and bulbs (12W x2) and now it trips the breaker every time I put it under load and I cannot figure out why. I used the same in-wall round fixture box so I didn't have to cut stucco to fit a new one (that seems to be a bit larger for some reason...), but I removed the in-wall round fixture box and then replaced it. It's mounted to wood (under the stucco), so I don't know if there is now a grounding issue causing the short, but the setup is exactly the same as it was previously when it worked...

Here is a pic of the new light wiring (pardon the use of black wire for the bulb-to-housing ground, I didn't have any spare green colored wired.

https://ibb.co/dDQrs0B 

Is there a ground wire from the house somewhere that is supposed to connect to the in-wall round box that I am missing? I didn't see anything when I took it out of the stucco initially.

Thoughts?

Should I just tear the whole house down and start from scratch?

There are two black wires from each socket, with are connected to the ground, I suspect one is a ground and the other is not a ground, but connected to the lamp.

Try isolating the light on a bench. Temporally connect the white and one each of the black wires to a voltage source.

If you have volt meter see if one is grounded to the fixture body.

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You are right, Gene, I didn';t have any green wire laying around to run from each bulb to the case (and the fixture didn't come with them). Good point on trying it on the bench. I have a multimeter, I will check it and see.

what's a multimeter?

More than one meter.

That’s what I’m doing.

it will read 220 or 221, whatever it takes...

Did you test yourself for sobriety ?

If the breaker is tripping as soon as you switch it on, you've wired it wrong.

Hot side in the socket is the tab at the bottom.

Neutral in the socket is the threaded part.

Take it off the house, put your multimeter in ohms/continuity mode. Put one lead of your multimeter on one of the black wires and the other probe of your multimeter on the tab in the lamp socket. Did it beep or show a zero or small number on the display? That's the wire you connect to the hot lead coming out of your house (should be the black wire). The one that's continuous to ground gets grounded and the one that's continuous with the threaded part of the socket is your neutral.

Looking at the picture I'm not sure why there's black wires coming out of the lamp socket and going to ground. The fixture should be grounded to the junction box but the lamp sockets themselves shouldn't need a ground wire. You're only grounding the chassis/housing. The socket itself, at least the ones I've seen, doesn't have a ground. I'm wondering if they're both hots or you said you replaced the lamp holders on the housing maybe one of the black wires you have going to ground went to the motion sensor?

What are the two back wires going to ground?? There should be no need to ground the fixture more than once.

If the Line/Load (black) is tied to ground you WILL pop the circuit breaker.

Disconnect your ground and try it - I think you have the line/load tied to ground.

Disconnect the black to the fixture to see if they’re a short in the wall.

Try the fixture without the bulbs to see if there is a short in the bulbs

Get a meter - $5 at harbor freight.

The two blacks shouldn’t go to your ground. If I was taking a wild guess all those blacks should be together.
Is that a brand new fixture you’re hanging or used? A fixture will still light even without a ground. Leave your yellow ground as is but remove the two black wires. Light will likely light with just 2 of those blacks. The other 2 would likely tie into red which you don’t have. You use red wire when you have 2 switches controlling the same light. In this case you don’t have a secondary switch to control that light. This is just a guess but I have dabbled heavily and wired a couple houses. (Remodeling with the homies).

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So basically you’re running a hot directly to a ground which is instakillin your breaker.

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It's not hot to ground, I just needed some wires to connect the ground and used non-hot black wiring...

I could be crazy. Im confused why a ground wire black or solid copper would be going into the bulb housing ever. I’ve personally never saw that. I convert the fluorescent bulbs with capacitor over to led pretty regular. I’ve never had to add a ground. Maybe if you had some more pictures of what you’ve changed I might better be able to assist.

The fact your breaker instantly kicks is a sign of a dead short. Which is why I thought you had a black hot to a dead ground. I get that you’re using wire you have on hand. I’d do the same. I just haven’t ever had to run a separate ground.

I’m not trying to be smart assed or anything. Genuinely trying to help

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By any chance in a million you didn’t accidentally hook one of your grounds up to the hot in the wall did you? Like the black ground didn’t mistakenly get hooked up to the black coming out of the wall. I’m 99 there’s a short to a ground to instantly kick your breaker as soon as you throw the switch.

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What happens if you just ignore the ground?

Undo the yellow wire. Test it, does it trip the breaker? I'd guess not.

If not reconnect the yellow from the fixture and the junction box leaving out the non wire nutted blacks (the two black wires that make a "W" in your pictureI. Test again. Does it trip? I'd guess not.

Not sure what the extra black wires on the light fixture are for. Maybe they are for daisy chaining other light fixtures?

Wouldn't just simply screwing the fixture into the junction box connect the ground via the installation screws anyway? (assuming the junction box is grounded behind the stucco somewhere)

The extra blacks are ground wire stogie added

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Why would you need to add extra grounds from each light socket? Shouldn't the whole assembly be grounded via the yellow ground wire?

Maybe if he put his tongue on the screw of the light fixture, we could be a better diagnosis.

Stogie, keep it wired as you have it then lick the screw on the light fixture. Report back the results of the test.

NINE! teen

Edit: I'll bet one of the bulb sockets has a short in it. Replace it and it will work perfectly. Might be some cheap Chinese stuff so return the faulty fixture to Home Depot and get your $20 back.

The extra blacks are ground wire stogie added

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