Ceiling light ****************Pic Included****************

[Judge JD]

Hello members i need a little help and advice but before asking i did use the search button and read all 28 pages that showed up but i am still stuck....so here goes.
I have 2 hallways in my house (front and back) my house was rewired about 10 years ago and this is the first time i have chosen to remove the old light fittings in the hallways so i turned off the mains before starting but when i unscrewed them from the ceiling this is what i saw

as per the other lights in the house i did not have just a red/black/green wire to fasten into my new light fitting which is a metal multi spotlight, now from reading this forum i gather the 2 black wires are neutral (they go into 1 hole) and the single black is live. I see the earth wire but it seems to come out of the grey plastic and up into the darkness i presume it fastens or goes somewhere else as its not loose and i don't know what to do....i thought i should add as much detail as possible but i don't know what to do next....any help would be great.

 

[fireman22]

what do you want to do or what are you trying to do

 

[Judge JD]

I am fitting a new ceiling light to replace the old rose type already up...the new light fitting requires an earth and from the photo i don't have a free earth wire to screw into it as it seems to be going somewhere or maybe on a loop, can i chop it and screw it into the new light fitting (both ends of the chopped bit but i dont think its long enough) or can i add a short extension from it (like twist some wire around the earth connection then screw it to my light fitting?...as you can tell i am lost.

 

[felix]

What an abomination you've got! It's a pretty fair bet that those earth wires have just been twisted together and stuffed up into the hole. In other words, their ends are not connected to anything so you can, with care, get all three back out.

I can see something that might be sleeving but it could be some sort of crimp holding them together. The good news is that there's unlikely to be anything else up there to which they could be attached. Give it a go.

 

[Judge JD]

Thanks for the reply felix i will try to give them a tug and see what happens, i was just concerned that i might detach the wire from whatever i thought it was attached to....and it does have sleeving on and the other hallway light has the same wiring too.
Will post back.

 

[Adam_151]

Pull the lives out of the void as well, they shouldn't be in there, and make sure they arn't just twisted together

 

[breezer]

What an abomination you've got! It's a pretty fair bet that those earth wires have just been twisted together and stuffed up into the hole. In other words, their ends are not connected to anything so you can, with care, get all three back out.

.

some years ago to it that way was "the norm" yes it was never in the regs but quite often it was done that way

 

[Judge JD]

Felix you were dead right the earth wires were twisted together and then twisted around the whole group of wires as well i had to pull hard to get them to come free but all now is well....apart from those red wires which are also stuffed up into the void they have a terminal block on the end and electric tape around that too are these ok to be left alone?, but they are not twisted like the earths were.
I just want to thank you guys for the help and advice so far its very much appreciated

 

[fireman22]

You can use a chocbox its a clear plastice box that clips around your existing connector blocks, most good electrical wholesales keep them. Just wire a short length of cable from this for your new light, you may have to make existing hole slightly bigger then you can push the chocbox into the void, you can always pull it out in the future. This way you only have one earth, live and neutral to wire into your new fitting, most new fittings dont like lots of wires.

 

[breezer]

from here

other suppliers are available

 

[plugwash]

that assumes that he can get at the mess from above or get it through the hole without causing major breakage

personally i would say leave well alone in this case. I agree its not ideal but thats existing installations for you.

 

[Judge JD]

I cannot get to the wires from above as they are both entrance hallways and i don't fancy taking the slates off the small roofs to get to the wiring, i am willing though to open up the ceiling and do what fireman22 says (thanks for the pic and link breezer as i have never seen one before) we are currently decorating so a another hole in the ceiling is not going to cause a problem.
I have visited this forum before but normally just used the search button and found what i needed so its nice to know that if you get stuck friendly advice is not far away .