Tweet
HI gang, I'm hoping for a little guidance here. If anyone knows of a forum as good as this one please pass it along.
Having passed our one year anniversary of buying our first home and learning of the Farmer John style of rewiring the kitchen and garage (my apologies to actual farmers named John) I'm having to address some potentially dangeous issues. Last one I addressed was a covered up oven wall socket that had loose/broken connections in the wall. With this in mind I'm wanting to attack another issue with elecrical. In the garage the primary lighting is from a wall switch to a single incandescent fixture mounted to one of the rafters above the washer and dryer.
This fixture had been tapped into (loose again) to operate a T12 fixture above the workbench in the back of the garage. Upon first moving in the fluorescent tubes (F96's) would occasionally flutter off. I replaced them with fresh tubes that I use at my office, but upon replacing them they failed to light. Suspecting a ballast issue (as at my work this is one of the usual suspects) I held off on this repair until I got on top of my oven issue.
So, yesterday I purchased a standoff voltage probe and began tracing wires with load and finding the corresponding breaker I killed the power and took apart the smaller fixture and found that there were four wires (two white, two black) that had been crammed into the hold fasts in the cap.
It looked as though the primary wiring (in place) had been curved into a hook pattern and was wrapped around the bottom of these with a wire and stay holding the wire in place. The tap was loosely crammed into these tabs and only the black tap was secure. After I removed this panel the whole works of the spring wire and tab fell from the fixture.
So my questions are is this fixture repairable? Is there a safe way to run a tap into this fixture? or should I get a box to make a junction for the lighting wiring in this space. (seems logical to me, but I'm no one's electrician save for automotive).
Thanks and a lift of the lynch lid for any help on this.
Having passed our one year anniversary of buying our first home and learning of the Farmer John style of rewiring the kitchen and garage (my apologies to actual farmers named John) I'm having to address some potentially dangeous issues. Last one I addressed was a covered up oven wall socket that had loose/broken connections in the wall. With this in mind I'm wanting to attack another issue with elecrical. In the garage the primary lighting is from a wall switch to a single incandescent fixture mounted to one of the rafters above the washer and dryer.
This fixture had been tapped into (loose again) to operate a T12 fixture above the workbench in the back of the garage. Upon first moving in the fluorescent tubes (F96's) would occasionally flutter off. I replaced them with fresh tubes that I use at my office, but upon replacing them they failed to light. Suspecting a ballast issue (as at my work this is one of the usual suspects) I held off on this repair until I got on top of my oven issue.
So, yesterday I purchased a standoff voltage probe and began tracing wires with load and finding the corresponding breaker I killed the power and took apart the smaller fixture and found that there were four wires (two white, two black) that had been crammed into the hold fasts in the cap.
It looked as though the primary wiring (in place) had been curved into a hook pattern and was wrapped around the bottom of these with a wire and stay holding the wire in place. The tap was loosely crammed into these tabs and only the black tap was secure. After I removed this panel the whole works of the spring wire and tab fell from the fixture.
So my questions are is this fixture repairable? Is there a safe way to run a tap into this fixture? or should I get a box to make a junction for the lighting wiring in this space. (seems logical to me, but I'm no one's electrician save for automotive).
Thanks and a lift of the lynch lid for any help on this.
Comment