removing junction box/fixture

[farseer]

Hi, I had an electrician upgrade the wiring in our home. The home is 3 floors. on the 2nd and 3rd floors are wiring for smoke detectors in the ceiling. Both of these are a junction box fixture. Neither of these boxes had power. After banging my head against the wall hours, i finally learned that the 12/3 wires from the 2nd floor connects directly to the 3rd floor box. the 2nd floor box also has a second

12/3 cable entering that box and i imaging that is intended for the power. the problem is there is no power and i can't figure out where that wire runs to.

SO, what i want to do is remove the 2nd floor junction box to see if i can get a glimpse at where the cable might be heading towards. the problem is, i can't for the life of me budge that junction box. I don't see any screws holding it in place, so i can't figure out why this box is so secure up there. the same thing seems to be the case for the 3rnd floor box. Anyone have an idea of how these junction boxes can be removed or pushed out of the way?

Also, a side question, anyone know of a device with a mini camera that one can use to look in cieling passages..kind of like a snake with a camera?

[John Gilmer]

If it's a "New Work" box that's intended to be put in place BEFORE the drywall/plaster is put down then it's likely held in place by nails which go outside the box via a bracket cast into the box (if it's plastic) or welded to the box (metal) box.

MAYBE a "Saws All" can be slipped into the hole along the outside edge of the box and used to cut off the nails.

It's pretty easy to repair drywall. You might just want to make some inspection holes and see what you can see.

[David Nebenzahl]

farseer spake thus:

Are the boxes plastic or metal? Some metal boxes have mounting "ears" that can't be seen from the inside; plastic boxes may have a nail attachment that likewise can't be seen from inside.

Seems unlikely you're going to be able to find out where a cable goes anyhow even if you do manage to get the boxes out, which would take a lot of effort and create a hell of a mess. Have you tried asking the electrician?

[farseer]

These are metal boxes. Looking athe box, i do see these slots on the inside that might be considered 'ears'. How does one remove a box such as this?

I would ask the electrician, but i had to fire him and now he is unwilling to help.

Worst case, i can just cap that fire and splice the other one into a power source...but i really don't want to do that.

metal? Some metal boxes have mounting "ears"

[RBM]

Typically, smoke detectors will be interconnected, so your three wire cable should go from one unit to another. If the units work on two floors but not on the third, I would be opening up smokes on the second floor and looking for a cable that hasn't been connected, yet

[farseer]

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