Track lighting installation trouble

Hi,
I wanted to ask some questions about lighting installation. Here's my situation:

I have a three way switch at the bottom of my basement stairs which is connected to a single switch at the top. I wanted to install some track lighting upstairs, so I thought I could install a combination switch/3-way (leviton 5641) at the top of the stairs in place of the single that's there and wire the track lighting through the top switch.

This is proving to be a little more complicated than I expected, as the switches don't seem to work as described-only the switch at the top works to turn off the basement light, and the track lighting doesn't fully light. Other combinations I've tried light both the track and basement light at the same time. etc. I was hoping someone could give me some advice on how to wire it?

From the basement I have white (hot), black (hot), red and a ground coming up from the basement. I wired 12-2 from the ceiling fixture to the switch, which has a black, white and ground. How do I use these to wire the combination switch/3 way switch?

The leviton switch diagram:
a1 line 1
b1 line 2

Thanks for your help!

 

Welcome to the forums.

You can't randomly attach into a three way circuit.
If you only have three wires...red, black and white at the top switch.... you cannot connect there as there is no neutral.

Pictures of the wiring at both ends would be more helpful... How-to-insert-pictures

 

Thanks for the help. I took some pictures to show you more clearly.

 

The top picture is where you are working. The three wire cable is existing and the two wire cable is the one you just installed...... correct ?

You are showing white and black as hot. That would change if you hit that three way switch. You only have three wires there..... one is the hot and the other two are the travelers. There is no neutral present. That means you can't add on there as you need a neutral for your new lights and it is not there.

 

Is there any kind of workaround, or would I have to wire another set from the breaker or something like that?

 

That is called a dead end three way switch since it's at the end of the circuit. There is no power or connection to the light there. All the connections are at the other switch.

You would need to pickup power from somewhere..... not necessarily from the panel.