My ceiling can lights all of sudden will not turn on. There are about 6 lights connected to two 3 way switches. There is power at both switches. I saw on another forum post to replace both switches. I did that with no success. I removed lights from both ends and when I put my electrical tester up near the socket, I get indication there is power. Any thoughts and thanks.
First things first...since you replaced both the switches I'm assuming you killed the power first at the circuit breaker then turned it back on. (that would eliminate the possibility of no power) . Also, you stated...you get an "indication there is power". Not sure what kind of tester you are using but some detect what is called phantom voltage but lets assume that's not the issue.
Just curious... did you use a ohm meter/continuity checker to check the two switches you removed. Ideally... one of them would prove defective in which case it would simply indicate you have rewired it incorrectly. Changing the defective switch should have fixed the problem. As you know, in addition to a possible ground there's a traveler, a hot end and a leg end. Since 3 wires can be connected to 3 terminals at both boxes that means only 1 out of 9 possibilities will work correctly. If both of the old switches check out good, and you're sure you wired in both of the new switches correctly then it could be a loose wire or connection feeding one of the boxes. Hopefully its coming from a box next to the box holding one of the 3 way swtiches.
Not saying this is the best trouble shooting video out there... but this guy does a pretty good job explaining how to troubleshoot a 3 way switch problem:
