Repair Aluminum Wiring
Aluminum wiring is in homes or room additions built from 1965 up until 1972, when manufacturers changed to copper wiring. Aluminum wiring was found to have a much higher potential for house fires because of wear or corrosion of the metal connections in receptacles -- your outlets or light switches. The corroding wires cause a resistance to the flow of electricity in the wiring, which creates overheating. Careful measures must be taken when repairing this type of wiring. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
Emergency Pigtailing
1. Shut off the power to the room where the repairs will be made. You run the risk of being shocked if you attempt to make repairs on live wiring. Use your flat-tip screwdriver to remove the screw or screws holding the plate cover on your light switch or outlet.
2. Loosen the screws that hold the electrical receptacle to the wall so that you can pull it out to expose the wiring. Located on each side of the receptacle is a screw for the white neutral wire and the black hot wire. Loosen the screws and remove the wires. Remember which screw you took the wires off of or take a digital picture.
3. Cut two 4-inch sections of copper electrical wire. Strip at least a 1-inch section of sheathing off both ends of the copper wire. Place one end of a copper wire together with the end of the black hot wire. Slide a wire cap over the ends of both wires and twist the cap. Attach the other end of the copper wire to the appropriate screw on the receptacle. Complete this step again for the white neutral wire.
4. Place the receptacle back into the wall and secure it with the screws that you removed. Place your cover plate back over the receptacle and reinsert the screw. This is only a temporary fix and should be permanently repaired with the appropriate materials as quickly as possible.
Permanent Pigtailing
5. Follow steps 1 and 2 in the first section. Use a Copalum crimp tool and Copalum parallel splice connectors to permanently repair the connection to the receptacle. Splice connectors are color-coded based on wire size. The size of the aluminum wire will be written on the sheathing.
6. Cut two 4-inch sections of copper wire and strip off at least 1 inch of sheathing from the ends. Place one end of a copper wire through a splice connector so that the bare end is sticking out. Twist the copper end of the wire to the bare end of the black hot wire. Slide the bare ends of both wires into the splice connector. Make sure that none of the sheathing from either wire is inside of the splice connector. Repeat this step for the white neutral wire.
7. Squeeze the splice connector for the hot wire and the neutral wire, using the Copalum crimp tool. The Copalum crimp tool will permanently cold-weld the wires together, creating a single copper connection.
8. Slide a section of shrink tube over the end of each splice connector. The shrink tube provides insulation for the splice connectors. Finish by setting your heat gun on medium and aiming it at the shrink tube. The shrink tube will basically shrink around the splice connectors.
9. Connect the repaired hot and neutral wires to your receptacle on the appropriate screws. Tighten the screws with your Phillips head screwdriver and reinstall your receptacle as in Step 4 of Section 1.
Tags: copper wire, splice connector, neutral wire, shrink tube, black wire
