Ok I've been changing the old outlets in the house and all of them were fine until I got to this 1 outlet. The outlet had 1 ground wire, 2 white and 2 black (if that helps). The wires were a little chewed up looking so when I went to wrap the upper white wire to its screw it broke and now the wire won't reach the screw and certain lights in the house won't turn on because of it. I probably should have left it alone because of the condition of the wires but its too late now so how do I go about getting the wire to reach its screw ? Thanks
using a wire nut just get the same size wire cut it about 4 inches long and make whats called a pig tail use the wire nut to connect the new wire to the short one its most likley a 14/2 wire if its on a 15 amp breaker if its on a 20/amp you should use a 12/2 wire
using a wire nut or crimp on splicer you can splice another piece of wire to it, tape the wires if they are damaged
The white wire can have a 6 inch* pigtail extension attached to it at the same you spice them together with a wire nut or crimp followed by taping. I'm wondering about the two hot wires though. You didn't say if they too broke apart or were connected separately to the old outlet. If they broke, the same thing can be done for them as you would the white (common) wires. If one half of the old outlet was isolated to respond to a light switch, there's a small break off piece on the outlet that needs to be taken off before you connect them. If you have a meter or a neon tester, it would be good to see which one responds to the switch if you don't know by now. If they were both connected to the outlet without isolation, pigtail them as you did the common and connect one wire only. (The outlet shouldn't be used as the connector between two wires. It wasn't designed for this.) Finally, wrap a couple of turns of tape around the outlet to cover the screws that the wire connects to as it will make further service safer. As most jacks are well marked for polarized hook up, it's hard to see what the writing (if any) is on the back even in good light. Remember the short slot runs hot. Somehow, that's always been the easiest way for me to not forget. *More if you need and there's room in the box. But 6 is standard.
