Re: [A/S] Serious discovery!

[Matt Worner <wornmatt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Phil et. al.

The only cure for aluminum building wire installations (short of
complete replacement) is tighten connections constantly.  Aluminum wire
cold flows under pressure so what's tight today will be loose
eventually.  And, of course, a loose connection is a hot connection. 
There are some aluminum based connection compounds that help (e.g.
NoAlOx) in larger sized wire (stranded) with compression connections but
for the type of connections on standard convenience outlets I wouldn't
count on much joy from that direction.  I suppose that if you had a
really serious compression tool you could put a copper pigtail on the
aluminum wire and do away with the Al right at the outlet, (in large
cables there is a device of this sort called "MACadapt") but the average
homeowner/restorer would probably only be moving the problem, not fixing
it.  

The most dangerous of all is when the device (switch or receptacle) is
of the "quick wire" type where the wire just plugs into a hole on the
back of the device and is caught by a sharp spring inside.  I've seen
these things literally eat the end off the wire and leave a loose
exposed conductor in the box.  And that was in a fixed structure, just
from inserting and removing plugs, not in a moving vehicle.  Boy, is
that a fire looking for a place to happen!

FWIW if I saw aluminum wiring in a trailer (or house for that matter) it
would only mean "total re-wire" to me