I have older wiring (in a mobile home) that consists of a continous WHITE 14/3 cable that runs the entire circumference of the trailer, like a belt, and is accompanied by 2 BLACK 14/3 cables. I needed to cut through all of them in order to put in a door. I decided to replace a nearby receptacle since it had the old style clip type mobile home outlet from the 80's. Here's the problem on that one... I took it apart and then got the black cables mixed up. I need to add a pigtail for enough length to work with. Is it ok if one of the black cables I cut in half gets matched up with the other separate black cable line? How should this receptacle be connected?
Second problem, different area: the bathroom switch was a rocker type with 2 rockers, top one for light and bottom one for exhaust fan, that broke and I cannot find a match for at either of the warehouse stores. I purchased a similar type but when I hooked it up the way it had been it didn't work. The new switch has 2 brass screws on one side and both a brass and a silver screw plus ground on the other side. The wiring in the box is all white ends capped together, none were hooked up to the receptacle. Of the 2 separate black cables, one cable has been marked with a piece of tape. One of the black wires from each of the black cables are connected to one of the black wires from the white cable then one set is attached to one of the brass screws on the right side of the switch (I don't know if it was on the top screw or bottom screw!!) so the other set marked with the tape is connected to the other brass screw on the same side. There was another black wire connected to the one brass screw on the left side. Also a single black wire was capped off. The grounds were all capped off together and not connected to the receptacle. I cannot tell which black cable is supply and which goes to the lights and exhaust fan. Since the new switch has one more screw on the left side than the original one did, where does everything belong?
I'll save my third question since this is too much for one post! My eternal gratitude to anyone who can help! I haven't been able to find any examples of this type of wiring with what I am trying to do on any of the sites that came up. Thanks for your time and help.

 

Welcome to the forums! Rule. No unprotected splices in the wall. All splices must be in a junction box. All junction boxes must remain accessible. With that said, if you create a pigtail, it must be in a junction box and it must remain accessible (with a cover plate). You would connect black/black, white/white, red/red and ground/ground to maintain continuity. NOW if you have a split receptacle that is operated via a wall switch, you will be dealing with a switch loop, and the steadfast wiring of colors won't be true. Without knowing where the cables come from, what they were going to, NO you can't just "hook" them to each other. You've made a mess, and someone else will probably have to clean it up, sorry. With only rudimentary electrical experience, you may be better off calling an electrician to sort out the wiring.
On your bathroom switch, the hot wire will be hooked to the black/andonized screw (it's not silver). There should be a jumper to the screw above it. No wiring is necessary to that screw. Your fan's black wire will be connected to one of the brass screws, and your light's black wire will be connected to the other one. All the white wires will be bundled together.
You may want to post a few pictures of your mess so we can see what you have. There may be a clairvoyant that can help piece it together, who knows. http://www.doityourself.com/forum/el...your-post.html