The wiring may not be conventional because the power or the light circuits are not coming into the switch boxes and some creative wiring was done. The easiest way to figure this out is to first disassemble all switches and lights to access the wiring. Find out which wires in each box have power and make a diagram. Next shut off the circuit so you can check each wires resistance/continuity. This will allow you to determine which cable is feeding where. With a voltmeter/DVM set to OHMS pick the first wire to check and make sure there is no continuity. With the meter still connected to the wire go to the light or switch box you think the wire is running to and touch the same colored wire to ground (this is assuming it hasn't changed color by a connection somewhere else). The meter will read close to zero ohms when the wire is touched to ground (some wires may read a low resistance if it is connected to the light bulb so you may want to remove them). Do this for each wire until you have a diagram showing where all wires are going/coming from. Then is is a matter of having the wire supplying power go to the common of one switch. The two other wires in that same switch box must get to the other switch. The other switch will have the two wires coming in from the first switch and then the wire going to the lights connect to the common of switch 2. It now is a matter of connecting the wires through all the boxes to achieve this configuration. If you cannot figure this out then a picture of where all the wires go to the switches and lights. Good Luck!

power -- switch -- wire to light power -- switch -- wire to other switch This is what he said he had doesn't mater what he said about the rest any electrician that knows what he is doing can easily make the 3-way work with these wires. Obviously your not an electrician joefixit. He does have the light and power in one box but there is also power in the other box. The only reason you need to use a 3 wire is to send the neutral to the other switch so it can send it to the light. Well he has a neutral at the switch with the light according to what he said above. So if you tie the neutral through to the light cap off the hot on that side and don't use it you now have the neutral you need at the light. Land the black wire coming from the light to the black screw on the switch that is the common for that switch. Now according to what he said there is a wire running between the switches, so there should be a black and white in that wire, those are the travelers you now have your neutral, travelers, and common over at the switch going to the light. On the other side you have the power and the wire to the other switch so now you cap off the neutral cause you don't need it now cause there is one already going to the light after you do what I said earlier, the black hot wire is your common and it goes to the black common screw on the switch now there will be two wires left, according to what he said they are going in between the two switches so the black and white that are left are your two travelers. If your so sure this is wrong tell me how, because there is now way possible to make this not work unless the wire he said that were there arnt actually there I'm just going off the info given

helpmeplease- I didn't suggest connecting the two black wires together! I suggested putting one of the black wires from switch #2 on one terminal of the timer and the other one to another terminal. Now that we know what timer you are using, I still think that, but I also realize I misread your original post. You've got 4 wires on the timer: green goes to grounds, white goes to whites. Looking at the instructions for the switch, it looks like the black wire on the timer is connected to the black from switch #1, and the red from the timer connects to the black going to your lights. Re-reading your original post, I would have connected it the way you did, but the instructions seem to suggest that you had the red and black wires on the timer reversed. If that doesn't work, you may have a bad switch. Here is a link that might be useful: Timer This post was edited by kudzu9 on Thu, Jun 19, 14 at 13:50

Yeah. They don't (have labeled positions), and they are (supposed to be) 3 way switches. Saying "on" and "off" in this case doesn't mean a particular switch position, it just means toggling it. Both sets of switches have specific positions that the one switch must be in for the other to work, but I didn't bother to write that down exactly. I CAN, if you think that will help - but I'm pretty sure its not germane. @Fred - I don't quite understand your schematics. I'm guessing the black lines represent the "hot" line - but what's the purple line? There are 2 traveler wires in addition to "hot" but I don't see where to attach those nor what wires coming out of the wall are supposed to go where. What I do know about 3 way switches is the live wire is supposed to go to one place on the switch - I THINK that used to be labeled "common"? And then the 2 traveler wires go elsewhere. Elsewhere being a nebulous term that merely means I know they're supposed to be wired into the switch somewhere other than where the live wire goes. I've read some stuff about how to determine which wire is which, but it requires turning the breaker back on so you have live wires and can test with a multimeter. Makes me nervous. I may have to do that anyway, given this is not a situation where you have a correctly wired switch and you're just replacing it. Thanks.