3 way switch

Thanks for the reply Thomas. I am using DC rated switches and suppose one of them may be bad. I have blown enough fuses configuring different ways to connect 2 3 ways and 1 light. I would appreciate your diagram. About the DC switches. I am going thru a person that deals from this site and tells me most folks are using AC switches cuz they are more available  and cheaper. Says AC will work but with a shortened life. Are DC swathes still being made ? E-mail basmith @ cablemt.net

Thanks for the reply James. Don't know if the site needs the switch but if it did I would buy 4 Ea. single switches. I am setting up a 24vdc system. All my lights are DC. About 12 lights on 5 diff. circuts with the Edison base adaptor for the Halogen 2 prong 50w.bulb inside and 20w outside. With what is not working with my 3 way I will assume one of them is bad and use an AC switch to check before I need to order a 3 way.Electricity sucks when all I know is new batteries make my Flashlight work.

It sounds as though you might have a "traveler" wire mixed up with a line or load wire. 
One way is - positive and negative would enter one switch box. The pos. (line) would terminate on that switches common screw. Two travelers would terminate, one each on the other two screws. The travelers along with the neg. would then go to the light box. This is where the neg. would terminate on the screw for the outer threaded ring of the lamp holder. The two travelers would then continue to the next switch box and terminate the same as before. Then pos. (load) would come off of that switches common screw and go back to the light box and terminate on the screw for the center pin of the lamp holder.

Even though the wires may be run differently from house to house the principle is the same. For example; pos. and neg. may enter at the light box but there only needs to be three conductors going to each switch box. Two travelers and line to one switch, two travelers and load to the other switch.
 
With the circuit dead and all wires separated at each box use a meter that can "ring out" continuity and identify each wire at each box with colored tape. Make pos. red and neg. black. Make one traveler blue and the other orange. Once everything is identified I think it will be an easier task for you to figure it all out. Easier said than done I know. (One of my money making skills is troubleshooting industrial motor control wiring at places like, but not limited to cotton gins.) You will need a Length of wire and maybe some help to accomplish this. If the common screws on the switches are not identified by the manufacturer you can use that same meter to find out which is common because only one screw will "ring out" to the other two depending on how the toggle is positioned.

On a side note - what clarified 3-way, 4-way switching for me was hearing the words, "you can have as many 4-ways as you want as long as there is a 3-way at each end."

 Knowing your travelers from line from load is the key.