Fixing lights and repairing an outlet

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Your hands may be tied when it comes to replacing any of the switch or receptacle boxes for the mobile home.

Meaning, the wall cavities usually are very narrow in depth and this is the reason why they use the self-contained boxes where the switch or receptacle is part of the box itself.

Using a standard "old work" box from the HDepot or Lowes or any home improvement center may cause an issue with the depth of the box thus limiting the number of conductors you can put in the box. Even using on of THESE shallow boxes presents a challenge if the wall material is thick it becomes very difficult to tilt the box into the opening and push it flush to the wall surface.

Quite honestly when I get a call for a mobile home/trailer I tend to find excuses that I am too busy at that moment to go on the call because I know it will be nothing short of a nightmare and end up costing me more in my time and frustration. I did a few trailers/mob homes for friends and hate working on them.
 
I bought identical replacements and I am having a hell of a time trying to get the wires in. Should I strip them past the point where they go in the box?

I can't even get the first one in.

Any ideas?

They said they made a special tool to do this, but it cost $100. They told me a flathead screwdriver would do the job, but it doesn't seem to be working for me.

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And again, this is why I "run the other way" and :hide: when it comes to working on these homes.

It depends on the type you got. Some just clamp down on the conductors and the clamp has little sharp points that dig into the insulation to make contact with it. Can you post the model make of the connectors you got or at least some type of identification of the part so we can work with you.
 
farmerjohn1324 said:
I hired help
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Please be sure to come back and let us know how things went with the person you hired. I hope that person has worked on homes like yours before. Some may say they have but when they start opening up the boxes and find the self contained boxes say "what the heck is this thing?". Or they just assume the standard size old work boxes will fit in the wall cavities until they go to put one in and low and behold - "it won't fit!"

The other problem I found using those self contained boxes is that there is no "slack" to make use of. The romex going into the boxes is very short mainly because all the stripped sheathed part of the romex has to fit in that little tiny box. So if the conductors are not in good shape when the boxes are changed there won't be much romex to work with to try and get further down the romex to work with better conductor insulation. Putting it short; working with these boxes is just a PITA! I can see maybe him/her suggesting using wire mold boxes as a cure.

Wishing you luck that all goes well with this project. Glad you passed it off to someone with more experience as you would have faced a lot of frustration with this.
 
afjes_2016 said:
Please be sure to come back and let us know how things went with the person you hired. I hope that person has worked on homes like yours before. Some may say they have but when they start opening up the boxes and find the self contained boxes say "what the heck is this thing?". Or they just assume the standard size old work boxes will fit in the wall cavities until they go to put one in and low and behold - "it won't fit!"

The other problem I found using those self contained boxes is that there is no "slack" to make use of. The romex going into the boxes is very short mainly because all the stripped sheathed part of the romex has to fit in that little tiny box. So if the conductors are not in good shape when the boxes are changed there won't be much romex to work with to try and get further down the romex to work with better conductor insulation. Putting it short; working with these boxes is just a PITA! I can see maybe him/her suggesting using wire mold boxes as a cure.

Wishing you luck that all goes well with this project. Glad you passed it off to someone with more experience as you would have faced a lot of frustration with this.
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My neph lives out the other side of the sticks just past the boonies and almost to end of earth. His neighbor Richie lives in an Alumnaminium circa 1970 with all aluminum wiring on top of all the snap together Jboxes and special outlets.

He said you have to come over and see Richie’s place he put in a new service panel 100A and rewired his whole 70’ long place in one day. He mounted the panel right on the wall next to the old one moved the feed wire over and wired the whole place with #12 stapled right to the wall about 6” down from the ceiling when he wanted to branch off he screwed a 4x4 box to the wall with one outlet with a steel cover plate and then stapled the cable straight down to 18” off the floor another 2x4 box with an outlet. Ceiling lights and switches the same way every inch of wire is inside the living space and visible. He did a fairly neat job of keeping the wires flat to the wall and straight and took his risk of dieing in a fire way down to what he had. Given his whole place might be worth 500 bucks I thought he did ok. He said he did it because he was tired of the wires melting off in the walls.
 
The outlet was replaced with a standard one.

The switch in the bathroom wasn't the problem. This still has to be fixed, but there's something wrong with the wiring in one of the bathroom fixtures.
 
farmerjohn1324 said:
The outlet was replaced with a standard one.

The switch in the bathroom wasn't the problem. This still has to be fixed, but there's something wrong with the wiring in one of the bathroom fixtures.
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Power goes from one outlet to the next so the problem could be another outlet or a bad wire in the wall.
 
nealtw said:
Power goes from one outlet to the next so the problem could be another outlet or a bad wire in the wall.
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That sounds logical Neal but one trailer I worked on the power went to the light fixture in the room and then to the other receptacles in the room along with a switch loop by the door all coming from that light fixture box. There were 6 romexs in that light fixture box. I don't know how that trailer first past electrical inspection with a loaded light fixture box like that.

Problem with running new circuits in a trailer/mobile home is that there are what is vapor barriers above the ceilings in some of them to the small attic space and below the floor. So running new circuits is quite difficult without disturbing that barrier.

NOTE: I call them vapor barriers for lack of proper terminology but I think you know what I mean.
 
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