On 1/14/2011 11:42 AM Ron in CA spake thus:

The other day I noticed our porch light was out. Assumed it was the bulb,
but that wasn't it, so I removed the fixture, thinking it was a loose wire
nut. There is a black wire and a white wire in the box. Turns out, the
black wire is severed near the back of the box, with just a piece of
insulation holding it to the wire that would connect to the fixture wire.

Is there any way to splice the wire when there is just a quarter to
half-inch to work with inside the box? Otherwise, it looks like I'll need
an electrician to go into the wall. Any advice is appreciated.

Someone--electrician, or someone like him--needs to pull the wire
farther into the box, *if* that is possible. Contrary to what "HeyBub"
told you, the people who wire such boxes often leave little or no slack
in the wires, even they're spozed to leave about 6" free.

If the light is on a switch, it *should* be safe to work on with the
switch off, though a smart person would probably want to check it with a
volts sniffer to make sure it's not live. With the power off, see if you
can 1) take the box off the wall and feed more wire into the box from
behind it (probably difficult), or 2) try to pull more wire into the box
from inside the box, though this may lead to problems if you end up
stripping insulation off the wires; then you'll have no choice but to
call an elecrician.


--
Comment on quaint Usenet customs, from Usenet:

To me, the *plonk...* reminds me of the old man at the public hearing
who stands to make his point, then removes his hearing aid as a sign
that he is not going to hear any rebuttals.