Mike(NEOhio)
Well-known Member
- Location
- Newbury, Ohio
Wife put a load in and sparks flew when she pushed the start button. I tried it and got the same thing. The aluminum foil duct runs up above the block and bends to the outlet in the joist space. The bend lays over a water pipe and that's where the sparks came from. I'm thinking the duct should not be hot. I checked for voltage from duct to ground, nothing. The cable connections and clamp were good. Thinking now the pipe may be hot. We got a new well and pump back in Sept. No voltage to ground with pump running or off. It's three years old and when they installed it that duct was arcing where it touched a cable from the room above. I replaced that piece of wire and added a junction box to get it away from the duct. I posted about that wire at the time. I stripped it and could not find any sign of work insulation. Now I think that may have been the pipe then, but it never did it again till this morning. I added an elbow above the water pipe so the duct could not touch and it's OK now. I checked for voltage again while it was running and got nothing.
I'm stumped. What could have caused the arcing to the pipe. Maybe a fault in the motor or coils? Perhaps it's intermittent. Electrial buys, any ideas?