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by Strong Eagle » Sat, 20 Oct 2012 6:03 pm
Yes, that's an electronic ballast, and yes, it's most definitely fried, and yes, most DIY shops carry them. It's easy to change the wires out.
Having said that, please notice how the ballast is fastened to the light base. You will see two small nuts. That means they are fastened to two small bolts, whose head is on the other side of the sheet metal base. Chances are they are quite stuck after rusting in Singapore for ten years. You might get lucky, and it is almost certain that you will need to remove the entire fixture to replace the ballast because the small bolts will rotate with the nuts as you try to take them off. And, unless you get a ballast that looks exactly like yours, the mounting holes may not line up which means you skip one bolt (OK, really), or drill a new hole in the base.
Ballasts all work the same way but don't always look exactly alike, so you need a bit of familiarity with wiring to ensure proper connections. In your photo, the black (hot) wire is connected directly to the starter (small canister near the light). You don't need to touch these wires. The neutral wire (blue) is connected to one side of the ballast, then the other side connects to the starter. You just need to make sure that if there are any markings on your new ballast, you connect the neutral to the correct side.
Frankly, I've given up on replacing ballasts... I've done it two times and the ballasts have failed within the year. I don't know if it is CCC (cheap China crap) or something else. No offense intended, and, that looks like a cheap fixture to me... I'd just replace the whole thing. At worst, you'd need to drill two holes in the new fixture if the mounting holes don't line up.
And may I suggest that the light switch be set to off for the entire duration of your activities... and if it makes you feel better, the breaker, although that is not really needed for a switched light circuit.