I'm an IBEW 2nd year apprentice...in my girlfriends house, which was built in the 1940's, she turned on the hallway light and the light blew. Changed the bulb, didn't work, and her bedroom light and outlets adjacent to the hallway light did not work. There are 2 bedrooms in the upstairs and no attic. The outlets and lights in the other bedroom all work. I checked the breakers and there is power coming from all the wires, I used a tick tracer to check them. There is also power to the non working receptacle and the (2) 3 way switches which control the hall way light. I replaced the two outlets and the switch she turned on. There is power on both neutral and black wire going to light fixture. No matter how I turned the light switch on and off, tried different combinations there was always power to the incandescent light fixture. When I took out an outlet in her room I noticed the black was going to the silver screw and the neural was on brass. The outlet worked this way so I wired it the same way. Should I rewire it silver to neutral and black to brass, cause the other outlet was wired that way? I didn't think and outlet would work if it was rev polarity. There are no GFCI's in the house...Any idea what to do? I might just have her call an electrician..
I would have to agree with your JW, sounds like a neutral, maybe a shared neutral circuit that has sent 240v into the bulb, but very well could just be a common open neutral too.
Old wiring is a boat load of fun. First off, don't be copying things you see such as the black to the silver screw without knowing why you're doing it. In general you should be landing that black on the copper screw. We can't trouble shoot your problem with a rambling text about lights on, off, color of screws. Yada yada. I think you need to pick up the basics first and do some methodical trouble shooting. Good trouble shooters will break things down into components. I like to start in the service panel and check connections myself. Then work down stream, checking polarity and connections. You'll find the problem.
Going from your original post, you said it was built in the 40's. Back then they sometimes fused the neutral on k & t wiring- I agree dangerous, but it was known to be done.:thumbsup:
Non-contact voltage detectors are not reliable diagnostic tools. Although I don't usually tell clients this, it costs more if they try to fix it. Diagnosing professional wiring is usually very straight forward. Diagnosing homeowner work can be very time consuming.
Bad connections are common in homes fromthat era that still incorporated solder and tape splicing methods. in some caseswhere the old timers cheated and just taped the sdplice w/o solder.
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