I'm back; breaking pledge -- electric problem...sosumi

Anyone who claims to be an 'elder' on a forum for knowing stuff, but is intolerant of honest questions asked of them... needs a binkie and a change

Ribbing in good humour, sure. Silence and / or flaming? Just how senior is this supposed forum 'elder'...

 

I keep kind of an assortment of cheap thingies around for testing which wires are live. A multimeter, sure, but also a little pocket-clippy neon light with test probes, and a similar thing with 'gator clips, and some of those funky light-bulb sockets made for festoon lighting, where you just screw the back of the socket down over some wires, and maybe two or three other things I was turning over in my hand one time or another thinking "that might be handy in some situations to see which wires are live".

So, like, I could turn the breaker off first, and take the old receptacle out, and stick the top black/white pair into one funky festoon socket and screw the back down, and stick the bottom black/white pair into another funky festoon socket and screw the back down, and put small light bulbs in both of the sockets and go flip the breaker back on and come back and see which light bulb lit up.

If there were no toddlers around, I might just switch off the breaker, remove the old receptacle, and leave both pairs of wires sticking out of the box, bent well away from each other, go back and turn the breaker on, and come back and poke at the exposed wires with the pocket-clippy neon light with test probes.

But I don't think I would do it that way with a toddler around.

 

Maybe the local hardware store knows a licensed electrician that will do work after hours for less. Get the whole circuit protected by the first gfci or put a gfci breaker in is what I would do, with all new spec grade outlets at least. An arc fault afci plus a gfci is even better, may be required. It definitely needs replacing from what you said and the picture.

 

Yep; can't trust wire colors. I've found them reversed on multiple occasions - usually when people get confused on a 3-way switch wiring. I've done a lot of volunteer work with Habitat for Humanities; and had to always check the way they wired and tied it together. That's a great way to figure out how to do basic household repairs. Unfortunately; you also find out how sloppy your house was put together along with all the code violations - tough to unsee those once you know.