So trying to fix supper lastnight. A outlet on the other side of the kitchen kept popping.... So didn't really want to get into too much. I made frozen pizza instead. After eating I decided to tear into that plug in. After getting the cover off and insulation out. I found a dead (a long time ) mouse. Nice! Not quite what I was expecting. So I got him out. While going through the wiring in the box. I noticed the plug had gotten hot. And the was a wire nut in there. Find three sets of wires going into the plug in. Nice. So put things back up till today. I go turn off the breaker. And break open the box again. So the brought the main power in to the plugin. Then ran another wire to the microwave circuit. The from the original plugin ran another wire for a flouresent light. But inside the box the wire but was loose and all it was in there for was a wire extension. Nice. Wires where both black on the wire nut. Lucky I guess no fire happened. Been trying to fix up all the electrical nightmares that I come against. Heck one night. I had just went to bed turned on the ceiling fan. Next thing I knew I had Fourth of July in my bed. The wires had worn through the cover and was hitting the turning motor. Till I turned off the switch. Deep breath....the joys of owning a older house...
My brother found a situation that looked like the mess in pic number 2 last fAll when he had an old outlet wear out. Color code was all disregarded and it was an utter mess. I put a meter on it, tracked it all down and reassembled it with the color code right, had to change polarity further down the line but at least now I know he will be able to take care of it if something should happen again. Our house is over 100 years old and I have taken most of the old circuitry off line and replaced it with new. But all the lights are still original. On my todo list!
Looks dangerous to me.. I'd be replacing all switches, outlets and rewiring all fixtures if I had that situation in my house.. Poor connections might not trip a breaker and pose a serious fire hazard.. Ray
I'd say it's time to get a qualified electrician over to assess the situation. Older homes often have "rigged" circuits, my old house being no exception (I had knob and tube patched into metal-shielded wire patched into early romex..........ugh), it was bad. When I gutted the house, we totally replaced every single wire and split the circuits correctly with proper breakers applied to each circuit. Thankfully no major damage happened at your home my friend.....be safe!!
Yep been doing that...as I can...some of its hard to unless I break into the walls. Cause the old wire & the casing is sooo brittle...
Haven't found any dead mice yet, but I have found some sketchy wiring. It's being fixed as it's found. I have an outlet/switch above the sink I need to tear into. Looks sorta' like yours.......sans mouse. ETA: Man, am I glad this got brought up...thanks Chvymn99. Here's that setup I mentioned.... someone soldered a connector on and it wouldn't stay under the screw. Screw was lose and what you see is how I found it. Have I mentioned how much I love this house?
Forgot to mention that after I took those pics, I got some tools and put in a jumper from the screw to connect everything. Didn't fix the common wire/screw on the outlet, since it was tight, but I will at some point. I need to win the lotto so I can bulldoze this place and rebuild the right way. Again....Jeesh.
My house is an electrical nightmare. I'm just replacing it all as I go through it. Most common problem is they used 10-3 wire and made two 20 amp circuits out of it by sharing the neutral. I had 30 amp breakers triple and even quad tapped (until I replaced the box).
