Rewiring A Lamp

Common reasons for needing to rewire a lamp include broken or difficult to operate switches, damaged plugs, and deteriorated wiring and, older lamps.

For this project you’ll need:

Plug first you need to unplug your lamp and disassemble it. Remove the lampshade and set it aside unscrew the light bulb and then remove the harp of the lamp. The harp has two arms that when squeezed together come out of their brackets. Unscrew the old socket from the lamp in order to remove the socket. Look closely and find the word press with your thumb or four-finger press firmly. While wiggling the socket apart remove the insulating covers as well. Once the socket is removed you can loosen the screws where the wires are attached and unhook the wires from the socket. Untie the knot and wires inside the socket base and remove it. Take the new cord and strip off about an inch of the insulation we are going to fish the new wire through the lamp. By using the old wire as a guide at the top of the lamp twist the ends of the old wires and the ends of the new wires together and secure with electrical tape but make sure you don’t make it a bulky connection as the connected wires have to feed through the lamp base. This lamps bottom is covered with felt the existing hole in the felt gives us access to the core. If your lamp doesn’t have one you’ll have to remove the felt with a paring knife by carefully peeling it back in order to reveal the cord from the base of the lamp. Pull on the old cord until the new cord appears then pull on the old cord at the edge of the lamp base. To bring the new cord through the channel make sure you leave about six inches of new cord exposed at the top of the lamp. Untape the connection and discard the old cord to install the new socket thread the wire through the socket base and secure it with the screw. Separate the wires and tie in underwriters not by making a loop with each wire and putting the ends of each wire through the opposite wires loop. Pull from the base of the lamp so that there is no slack in the line, now cut the wires about two inches from the not strip about one-half of an inch of the insulation off of the wires. Twist the ends of the wires in a clockwise direction feel both wires to determine which is the neutral and which is the hot wire. The wire with the ridge is the neutral wire the smooth wire is the hot wire take the smooth or hot wire and attach it under the gold screw. Make sure that the wires are looping around the screw in a clockwise direction and that none of the insulation is under the screw. Now attach the wire with the ridge the neutral wire under the silver screw slide. The insulator tube and the outer covering of the socket over the inner part of the socket making sure it slides all the way over the switch. Now push the socket onto the base this may require a little effort and should click into place reassemble the lamp first replacing the harp then the light bulb and then the lampshade. Now it’s time to finish the lamps plug take the quick-clamp plug and remove it from its case. Make a clean cut at the end of the wire feed the wire through the hole in the base of the plug. Spread the prongs of the plug apart and carefully feed the wire into the slot until it hits the end. Now squeeze the prongs together you’ll feel the wire being pierced by the prongs now carefully push the plug into the case with your lamp fully reassembled it’s now ready for use.