What To Do With These Wires

dmullen wrote:
Sorry for the lack of details, I'll try again.

The area you are seeing in the 2nd picture is after the microwave was removed. The Romex is run to a plug for the microwave.

The original vent hood had a black wire and a white wire. A purple wire and a white wire coming in from the left side was crimped together with the black wire. A purple wire and a white wire coming in from the right side was crimped together with the white wire. The controls for the vent hood were on the hood, fan and light.

Thanks for the replies. I don't do anything to the camper I'm not 100% sure about until I check with this forum!

Based upon the above.....

Common sense would say reconnect the parts you seperated, removing the vent from the circuit. So just crimp (wirenut) all four wires together.

That goes against everything I understand about electrical wiring, but I am not up to par with 12volt systems, and I hear that RV manufactures sometimes disregard standard color codes.

Me....I would have out my trusty AMPROPE trying to figure out what was hot and what was not. Could be the guy that wired the vent did not understand how to wire it.... so they just connected the hot and nuetral together :h

Are you ABSOLUTELY certain the purple/white from left was on black....and both purple/white from right was on white??? Is it possible bothe purples went to black....both whites to white??????

AGAIN.....12volt and/or combined 120/12 volts systems are not in my wheelhouse.


With standard household wiring, i would be wondering if a wall switch is involed. Pretty standard to connect a white as hot "to" the switch....so that black is once again the "Hot" when it is back in the fixture box.

Just splice them together. purples in one connector and whites in another.

Sorry for the lack of details, I'll try again.

The area you are seeing in the 2nd picture is after the microwave was removed. The Romex is run to a plug for the microwave.

The original vent hood had a black wire and a white wire. A purple wire and a white wire coming in from the left side was crimped together with the black wire. A purple wire and a white wire coming in from the right side was crimped together with the white wire. The controls for the vent hood were on the hood, fan and light.

Thanks for the replies. I don't do anything to the camper I'm not 100% sure about until I check with this forum!

hohenwald48 wrote:


Nomex? I think you might have meant Romex. One is fire retardant fabric. The other is a wire type. ;) And I think the Romex (yellow #12) goes to a 120VAC outlet up there in the upper right corner and is not involved in the OPs question. There is also a Romex (white #14) connected to a 120VAC outlet on the right side. I think cbshoestring gave a pretty good explanation of how to reconnect the wires.

My fingers must have been sleepy when I typed that. Yes Romex, not Nomex.

The purple wire confuses me, but I ASSUME it is part of the 12volt system. Then again, I did not disassemble the above project----- that is what I was trying to point out to the OP. Removing a fan is a pretty simple project, providing he removes the fan wires, then reconnects everything else as it was. A BEFORE picture may have assisted with the AFTER.

Still, my GUESS would be reconnected purple to purple, white to white.


ABOVE are my opinions, to be used as informational ONLY, not intended to be professional advise.

cbshoestring wrote:

dmullen wrote:


I'm just trying to learn how this works.

Yes, just understand that your learning curve could have lessons you DO NOT want to learn.

Real hard to judge a supply side, line side, etc....of a circuit based upon a picture. In fact, I see nomex in your picture??? So why a purple/white when normally you have black/white and green (bare copper)??????

MY non-advise, advise stands.......RECONNECT what you seperated.



Is PURPLE a 12 volt thing ???? I am not use to dual systems.

Nomex? I think you might have meant Romex. One is fire retardant fabric. The other is a wire type. ;) And I think the Romex (yellow #12) goes to a 120VAC outlet up there in the upper right corner and is not involved in the OPs question. There is also a Romex (white #14) connected to a 120VAC outlet on the right side. I think cbshoestring gave a pretty good explanation of how to reconnect the wires.

I should have asked where the switch was for the fan. Was it in the fan housing or a wall switch?

The two wires fed the fan plus something else. The purple wire is most likely the positive where the white wires were the ground.
If left separated some 12 volt item will not function. Could be light, monitoring panel or various other items.

dmullen wrote:


I'm just trying to learn how this works.

Yes, just understand that your learning curve could have lessons you DO NOT want to learn.

Real hard to judge a supply side, line side, etc....of a circuit based upon a picture. In fact, I see nomex in your picture??? So why a purple/white when normally you have black/white and green (bare copper)??????

MY non-advise, advise stands.......RECONNECT what you seperated.



Is PURPLE a 12 volt thing ???? I am not use to dual systems.


EDIT: As pointed out below by Hohenwald48---the above should read Romex, not nomex. I must have been sleepy when I typed that.

cbshoestring wrote:
Electrical work should only be performed by a licensed professional. The below information is for informational purposes only.


You removed a black (vent) wire from two purple wires....reconnect those purple wires with a wire nut & electrical tape around the wire nut for added peace of mind.

You removed a white (vent) wire from two white wires....reconnect those white wires with a wire nut & electrical tape around the wire nut for added peace of mind.

If they had been wired seperatly....why oh why would you consider wiring the four of them together :h

RE-READ above section in RED.

I'm just trying to learn how this works.

JWRoberts wrote:
If everything is working ok now, simply cut the wires and place a wire nut on the end of each one.

If something is not working, you can safely pigtail the two purples together with one wire nut and the two whites together with one wire nut.

DO NOT connect them all together because two of them are probably hot and two are probably neutral. A voltmeter will confirm the presence of voltage.

Sounds good. I will test in the morning and let you know what happens. I will start by putting a wire nut on the purples and one on the whites. Thank you.