On Jan 14, 5:40*pm, "RBM" wrote:
"Ron in CA" wrote in ...

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.

It is entirely possible that there is slack on the cable, inside the
ceiling, however it generally won't be between the required staple and the
box. There is NO requirement to have slack and there is a requirement to
have a staple, so the only way to get to the slack is to remove the box and
the staple. Both are usually doable with caution, and depending upon the
type of box that you have.




+1...

RBM is right on this one... To do this as a homeowner without needing
MUCH larger holes in the walls than you will find is the rationale
behind
hiring an electrician to deal with this repair... Plus the fact that
your
wire will still be too short to meet code even if you do find an inch
or two
of slack in the wall because you will have to cut some of that
remaining
half inch away to remove the corroded portion at the point where it
broke
to make a new safe connection...

Think long term here, pay the couple hundred service call for an
electrician
to do this job once and never have to worry about it again...

~~ Evan