More home electrical for a compote idiot

jose bagge

Well-known Member
Still tracking my problem, I've checked every gfi and nada. Here,s where I seem to stand : meter across the white and black at either my lights or dead outlets gives me zero. Meter from black to ground on lights and outlets gives me 120. Meter from white to ground on lights and outlets gives me 120 .
My good outlets give me 120 across black and white, 120 from black to ground and 0 from white to ground.
What am I dealing with on my dead circuits?
 
David has it right, you lost the neutral. As someone posted below, if your plugs and switches have the wires stabbed in the little holes in the back, this is likely your problem. It is just a matter of taking everything apart carefully and finding where you lost the connection. This will almost always be at a splice of some sort, either in a junction box, behind a light or switch, or in the panel where the neutral ties into the neutral bar. good luck
 
Okay guys, my thoughts FWIW (= 0 lol)

If alls well an AC voltmeter should read:

120 VAC Line (Black) to Neutral (White)
120 VAC Line (Black) to Ground (Green/Bare)

BUT IF ALLS WELL IT SHOULD NOTTTTTT READ 120 WHITE/NEUTRAL TO GROUND (should be 0), BUT THATS WHAT HE SAID!!!!!!!!!

Of course, if theres an open Neutral back to the panel and you place a meter on a Neutral thats on the other (NOT to panel) side of that opening thats on the return side of a load (like a light thats on but not working cuz its Neutral is open) a meter there WOULD READ 120 TO GROUND LIKE HE SAID!!!!!!!!

I agree Id be tracing wiring looking for a Neutral thats gotten seperated or burned off or come loose, especially (at a junction) at a receptacle where they are stabbed in and/or loose screwed and lost continuity.

Tell ya what I think and hope some professional electricians weigh in, even if the code allows?????? daisy chained Neutrals where the Neutral is effectively spliced via receptacle screws or stab connections, I PREFER THE NEUTRALS BE SPLICED IN AN APPROVED (Or at least better) METHOD WITH A JUMPER RAN TO THE OUTLETS NEUTRAL TERMINAL i.e. dont use the outlet for splicing the Neutrals (is that permissible nowadays, its NOT my preference???)

Whatcha think sparkies?????

John T
 
John it almost sounds like the brass plate between the two neutral screws on one of the outlets is broken. Those can be purposely broken off to cut continuous current.
 
YEP if you wire up a Multi Wire Branch Circuit, those tie tabs are broken off BUT THATS ON THE HOT SIDE, THE COMMON NEUTRALS ON OTHER SIDE. Or else a loose burned stab in somewhere or a loose screw on a duplex receptacle

JT
 
I agree. I had a problem like that, circuit would work then not work, etc., etc. finally found a line into an outlet was just touching the outlet. When you put a load on it, it would spark & push the line away from the outlet. Take the load off and after 5 or 10 minutes the line would settle back and make a connection. I took all the outlets with the stab in connections out and replaced them with screw terminal connections.
No problems now.
 
Your getting no reading between hot and neutral because even though they are both hot they are the same phase. The neutral is hot because it is either a loose splice and backfeeding off a plugged in appliance or somewhere a receptacle is "welded " together. It might not be tripping the breaker because you also have a bad grounding path somehow. I have seen this where a transformer was not grounded in a high rise apartment parking garage and one receptacle was melted across the contacts and both legs a the flourescent lights would give a reading of 110 v to metal framing.Ground transformer and replace melted receptacle and problem solved.Unplug everything. Open boxes and check all splices.
 
It is a code violation to not tail off but only in a multi-wire branch circuit. Although it is very bad practice [as probably what happened in Jose Bagges case here]. In an office buiding all circuits are going to be Multi- wire BC so the first phase rough in the splices are buried leaving two tails with the splice buried in the back of the box then at time of switching and plugging a Pass & Seymore device with prewired receptacle tails and litle clear "wire nuts " pick up the two tails left in the box at rough in. However this is another fail situation as it is as flimsy as a back wired receptacle when the pushed in leads fail to make good contact . But it only affects that receptacle. Oh {and heres why the contractor paid more for this ] IT'S REAL FAST! Haha.
 

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