I'm trying to replace some track lighting with a ceiling fan in our home office, which is a loft. The old fixture was attached to a beam, encased in drywall, at the peak of the ceiling. The ceiling wiring comes through a hole drilled vertically through the beam.

The problem is that the old track lighting fixture used only the black hot and neutral leads, so whoever installed that fixture clipped the ground wire and the secondary hot lead in the Romex bundle really short. Now, I don't have enough wire to properly connect the new fan.

Can I splice a new ground wire and red wire, 14 AWG, to extend a little farther and make the fan connections? Although I plan to install a pancake box, mounted to the beam and recessed in the drywall covering the beam, the splices probably won't quite reach into the box. Can I just splice with a wirenut above the box, in the drilled hole, and consider this safe? There's no attic access above the ceiling in this section of the house, or I would consider running new cable.

Thanks for any help!

What u are suggesting is illegal and would void your fire insurance if u had a problem. All wires should be teminated in a box.

Chuck

But it's legal/safe if I can manage to have the connections just barely in the pan and then run 6 inches of wire from the splice to the fan's wiring? (It might work out that way.) And even the ground splice must be in a box, yes? Thanks again.

If connections are in box, it will be OK.

Chuck