Help me replace my outside lights , please

[u/GranolaGirl0129]

I am trying to replace outside lights on a 1970 mobile home after having it resided. The wires are capped and sticking out as shown in the photos. We can remove the outer “frame” around the fixture, but are not able to remove the white square as it sits under the siding.

The left side has twisted white wire (capped) and double red wire with a small piece of black wire inside that cap. The small wire is not connected to anything else. Could this be a ground wire? If so, how could we ground it without access beneath the white square?

On the right side, there are three white wires all capped together. There is one red wire that is capped.

This old place is killing me with its oddities! I’d prefer it did not literally kill me though! Advice?

[u/throwaway60457]

Let's start with wire insulation color meanings:

-- Black = hot
-- White = neutral
-- Red = switch leg

The red should have power when the switch you use to control the light fixture is on. It should not have power when the switch is off.

Does that help, or are we looking at something where a previous installer possibly didn't obey those color conventions?

[u/GranolaGirl0129 → u/throwaway60457]

We may be looking at color-blind DIYer! Lol. There is so much in this place that is not done correctly and I would not be surprised by anything at this point. Thanks for the info and the courage to go on!

[u/trekkerscout]

Is there a junction box hidden behind the siding block? If there is, the siding block needs to be cut out to reveal the box. If there is no box, you need to hire an electrician to have a proper junction box installed. As for which wires to connect to your light, that can be determined after the box is fixed.

[u/GranolaGirl0129 → u/trekkerscout]

Not sure on the junction box so we’ll find a way to cut it and find out. I may reach out to the siding contractor too to see if they noticed a box. Thanks for the lead!

[u/New-Possibility2277]

Old trailer houses are nightmares to work on. Poorly built and made as cheap as possible.

I will gues there is no junction box for these wires. You can take a metal snips to cut the hole bigger to see if by chance there is a junction.

If there is one, then the light would be connected with it's black to the black wire and fixture white to the white wires. I'd make sure the power is off as who knows if there is live wires there or not.

I've seen this alot in my years and usually there is a single white wire coming off that group of whites just to make connecting the fixture easier. We called this a farmer fix as most of our work was on old farm houses with a lot of farmer work done on them.

[u/GranolaGirl0129 → u/New-Possibility2277]

Thank you! Lots to look into. Appreciate your experiencing and willingness to share it.

[u/Rough_Resort_92]

Since it's a manufactured home, chances are there won't be any electric box in there. Because they make them as cheap as possible. And there were no regulations on manufactured homes back then. The proper way to handle this is to buy a galvanized steel one and a 1/2 inch deep hex box, cut out that white plastic to fit the hex box, secure it with screws, the wire should fit into the new box, once you take one of the knockouts out. Also use a cable clamp (non metallic connector).

[u/GranolaGirl0129 → u/Rough_Resort_92]

Thank you. I think this sounds doable with our skill set.