Old house, Ceiling Light Fixture Died, No Change After New Switch

[ASE]

Ceiling light fixture was blinking in and out. Replaced the switch (single pole, no outlet or anything else in box). Now nothing at all. Old house, mostly old wiring (knob & tube). $2.00 little voltage tester, the kind with two prongs and little christmas tree bulb, shows no juice at switch (touch ends to the exposed wire ends) or at the fixture (again, touch ends of tester to exposed house wire in box). Have checked and turned off and on circuit breaker (upgraded panel), and no problems with anything else on that circuit. Do I need to try a better tester, or is everything fried somewhere in the line, leaving the choice of no more fixture or ripping apart plaster in old house(cha-ching cough cough)?

[ASE]

Thanks, I should have made it clear that if this involves anything more than changing the switch or perhap a simple repair to the fixture itself I ain't touching it. That's why I put in the cha-ching, for having to pay someone to do major work involving ripping out plaster. I'm just trying to do a minimal amount of diagnostics myself.

The real po> ASE wrote:

panel),

[Joseph Meehan]

There are many possible issues. I am going to suggest that from the information you have provided, you are not really ready to go about checking for this kind of problem.

Are you familiar with the various ways a light and switch may be wired? Have you tested the wires in a way that would account for all those ways?

I suggest that you may want to start by buying a good book at the DIY store or book store and read the section on home wiring. Learn it will before you start working on this project. Old homes can have many surprises in the wring. Someone who does not really understand what is going on may see something that may look OK but it may be a dangerous situation unknown to them.

You may want to call in a professional.

I am sorry, but from the information you have provided I can't offer specific advice on how to proceed safely in this kind of forum.

[Joseph Meehan]

The cheap tester is not at fault. The problem is there are far too many different possible way it could be wired to allow me to provide comprehensive instructions that would cover the possible code compliant and code non-compliant possibilities. Sort of that, I would feel like I was encouraging someone to try something that could get them injured or even killed. I had a hold home once. It originally was a log cabin, then brick, gas lighting added sometime along the way and at least three different version of electric wiring. I ended up totally rewiring it over several years. It had may non-compliant issues and many could have been dangerous to anyone doing testing. It almost got me once when I turned pulled fuses until I got that light to go out, while working on it I discovered that I did not get the right fuse, the light had just gone out while I was pulling another fuse.