Track Lighting: It worked before. How did I screw it up and how can I fix it?

October 12, 2007 10:08 PM

We recently moved into our new old house which has some scary 1980's renovations in it. In the living room there is track lighting which I have determined to be the "Halo" style of track. I want to buy new fixtures for it, so I took the old fixtures off to identify what kind of system it is. When I put the fixtures back on, I think I must have damaged the track by twisting the fixture the wrong way or something (I'm stupid and didn't understand how it connected...now I do...) because now neither light works on this track. It's not the fixtures themselves, as they work fine on the other track. Did I wreck the track? Can I fix it somehow?
posted by chococat to Home & Garden (4 answers total)

If the track isn't visibly deformed, it might be that you moved it around enough to dislocate it from its proper position relative to the connector at the end where it's wired to the house. The contact area is rather small and easy to get out of whack, so you may just need to adjust that connection.
posted by jon1270 at 3:27 AM on October 13, 2007

You may have stretched the track open wider by forcing the light the wrong way. Try it all the way at one end or the other, but it sound like you need a new track.
posted by lee at 5:13 AM on October 13, 2007

My first stop would be to check the breaker/fuse panel.
posted by Mitheral at 8:52 AM on October 13, 2007

Response by poster: Not the breaker.
I can't see any obvious breaks or cuts in the track (but it's hard to get a great view from underneath on a chair). Light's won't work anywhere on the track (but they work fine on the other track, which is on the same circuit.)
The connector thing is a little black plastic box, but I can't figure out how to open it to check the connections. All the connections outside of the box seem okay.
So frustrating.
Thanks for the ideas so far.
posted by chococat at 3:30 PM on October 14, 2007