trying to replace an outlet

100 year old house with many wiring issues. I used a receptacle, located in the floor, that I had not used before. When I went to unplug, the entire thing came up: it was just wiring connected to the receptacle. No box, nothing holding the thing down. So I went to the basement to shut off the power and take a look. There was three inches of aluminum stranded wire pigtailed to aluminum wire in a metal sheath, which went to a junction box where there are 4 or 5 other wires coming in. They are old two stranded copper wires. I have some new 14/2 that I can replace the aluminum with, but want to know what to do with the neutral when I hook it up at the junction box.

Thanks!

 

Oh, and the junction box is metal, if that matters. I have some extra metal boxes for the receptacle - can I use one of those?

 

There are many different types of floor plates. Can you shoot and post a picture for us ?

http://www.doityourself.com/forum/el...-pictures.html

 

It would be very unusual to have stranded aluminum conductors on a small branch circuit.

You are going to need to add a floor rated device box for the receptacle along with some wiring changes.

 

I don't think he has aluminum. It sounds like BX cable with the old silver plated copper wires.

White to white and black to black. You may need a meter or voltage checker to figure out which wire is white and which is black in the junction box.

The bare wire of your RX will go to a ground screw in the junction box.

 

It might be tinned copper wire, but I seriously doubt any of them are silver plated.

It actually sounds to me more like old knob & tube than BX. The old K&T was installed many times with no device boxes, The devices were screwed to the wood lath.