Aluminum wire

Good morning. Recently was asked by neighbor if I could go look at her fiances house because two outlets in kitchen weren't working. Went over today before work to take a quick look. Took cover plate off switch/ outlet box after using outlet tester . Tested open hot. Anyway discovered I'm dealing with Aluminum wire from good ole Kaiser himself. Now the problem is, this is the first time I have actually dealt with aluminum wiring romex. So I'm learning this is a duck of a different feather than copper. Most all my hardware says copper only. I'm talking about wire nuts, receptacles and switches. What I need to know is how the heck do I treat Aluminum as far as joining and terminations? Looking in the electrical boxes I can see wire nuts and unfortunately everything is backstabbed on the switches and receptacles. This area of the kitchen is a remodel from the early 1980's, when was aluminum discontinued just out of curiousity? Anyhow didnt have time to start looking for open hot but when I took cover plate off switch/outlet box on opposite side of sink and bumped switch slightly, light over sink went out , jiggled switch a little, light came back on. Yes it is backstabbed. I know I need to correct these things by moving to the screws , probably will replace with new. I will have to get back to you about the dead outlet problem. Right now I need your advice on working with this aluminum wire.....Thanks....RL

 

Rlf... I started to suggest that you post on the Home Wiring Forum, but when I went there to get the URL, I noticed your had already done so.

 

This is going to sound like it doesnt have anything to do with wiring but it does. The other day a woman comes and wants a hitch welded on her truck and she dont got much money and can I just do this,, so on and so on. Here she was wanting a hitch extension on a 78 truck with one brake working at best and she is going to hook some big ass horse trailer on this truck. Now, I sent her packin and old her if I ever see that truck hooked to a trailer I am callin the cops. The point? I know you want to be a nice guy and help a friend,,,, but take a cassarole or bake a cake instead. The one or 2 recepts that are not working are probably the tip of the iceburg on a 20 yr old install with alum wire and after some connection burns their house down no one is going to care about what a nice guy you were trying to be.

 

This is a bad one. For the most part Cu-Al receps and such are only available from a few electric supply houses due to limited demand. No wire nuts are apporved for Cu-Al joints. Of the 2 approved methods one requires a certification by the manufacturer after training to get the crimp tool. Unless you plan on replacing the Al conductors with copper, I would hesitate to do a favor on this one.

 

Thiggy and others thanks a lot for your replies. I did go to home wiring forum and copied off information on aluminum wiring . Having that information I went back to the house to check size of aluminum wire and size of breakers. More bad news. There is one branch circuit that is 14 awg aluminum. It is protected by 15 amp breaker. The rest of branch circuits are 12 awg aluminum. However more bad news they are protected with 20 amp breakers. I understand this to be a no-no. I should mention that the cables do contain an equipment grounding conductor. Anyway looks like I need to probably walk away from this one. Would still like to hear from more of you guys on this subject...RL