I've recently moved into a new house, and the workshop has what looks like power run to it. There's a cable that goes from the breaker to the workshop, but it does not have power. I assume there's a break in one of the lines in the cable somewhere as I've inspected all of the connections.
The run is through a drop ceiling, which should be easy, but the entire basement was studio insulated and so I can't find this wire. It looks like it enters a bundle with two other wires, but I don't know how tightly they're held together. My guess is the previous owner did the work, and not a certified electrician.
My first thought is to pull the old wire out of the outlet, solder as in-line as possible to a new wire, then shrink wrap that whole thing, and pull it through from the workshop to the panel (would direction matter here for burrs on the holes in the joists, etc?)
What's the standard way of doing this? I'm trying to avoid pulling all the insulation if possible.
Best Answer
If it was installed remotely correctly this is unlikely to work.
Even if it was not done remotely correctly it's still unlikely.
The cables should be stapled or otherwise fastened, which precludes pulling them out.
Even if they were not, the "bundling" of several cables would make pulling one of those cables out of the bundle difficult.
Indeed, even when a single cable is run through holes in studs/joists it's very hard or impossible to pull that out from one end, particularly if the holes were not perfectly aligned.
I would suggest that you start by disconnecting both ends of the cable in question and perform some basic tests on it with a meter, to verify that your guess that a break in the cable is the cause of the problem, before going any further. You may well be chasing the wrong problem. Or looking at the wrong cable.