newspark80

Opened up a metal box today and the ground wires from the two cables coming into it were twisted together and laying against the box. When I pulled them away there was a spark and the lights turned off in the two rooms that were being fed from it. I untwisted the grounds and pushed the wires one by one against the box. Found that when one of them was contacting the box the lights would come back on in the rooms. I did not have to much time to spend on troubleshooting further but I'm supposed to be back tomorrow. Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

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wow

oldtimer

Could be an open neutral, and the circuit is completed, through the ground.


This is one of those situations that should be taken care of A S A P.

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I'd rather have a bottle in front of me , than a frontal lobotomy. ( Quote from Tom Waits. )

newspark80

I left the circuit broken until I return tomorrow to make sure there is no danger. My plan is to start opening boxes up stream to find a lost neutral, but not sure how this could complete the circuit. Thanks for your time!

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wow

jwjrw

Sounds like someone has jumped the neutral to ground somewhere to bypass a bad neutral somewhere on the circuit.

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The more I learn the less I seem to know......

NevadaBoy

So there must be more than those 2 cables in the metal box?
It could be a couple things.It's either an issue with that box not grounded properly and an upstream device or load is faulty. Or there's a grounding issue in the panel(open ground, neutral, main bonding jumper).

My first check would be in the panel, with the propper PPE. Then verify grounding at the box. Then check upstream devices/loads. Good luck.

Techy

could be a bootleg neutral connection for a motion sensor of some sort as well

Shockdoc

I'm sorry, I have a skepticle eye. You are a master electrician and never encountered a stolen neutral situation before or in your case a neutral to ground. somewhere in your system a break in the neutral occured and a lazy electrician probably jumped in to ground to collect the service call and run without performing his real job duties.

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All these liberal laws has turned me into a right wingnut..

JohnR

Erik, you have two problems, 1, the neutral going from that box to the panel is missing, not working etc. 2 someone recognized that and instead of properly repairing or replacing the wire, they used the ground somewhere as the neutral.

That said, you posted your website in your signature. I was looking at it, and was struck by a couple of things.

Looks good, has a very nice LOOK. To me. Wish I had one that looked as nice.
You have a photo shopped picture of some commercial or industrial conduits as the main background, but EVERYTHING on the site references residential. Sup wi Dat?

The picture showing the backyard, I had a little funny feeling when I saw the words " Make your garden come ALIVE", made me think you were either a landscaper, or left some live wires in the backyard.

BTW, Welcome to the forum. You should wander over to introductions and post a little about your self.

newspark80

Thanks for the help. I will post some information about myself and my company soon. Check it out when you can.

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wow

All-Circuits

Funny, I had a service call just like this a month ago. No neutral feeding a subpanel. Gas pipes, cast iron plumbing, and heating and a/c ducts doubled as the neutral. The reason they called me was a connector on the original service was red hot, but fortunatly not hot enough to melt the insulation on the conductors. They didn't realize how dangerous this was, especially the electricution hazard. This would be one of those examples where 120v circuit could kill someone.