Old house wiring garage..


  #1  
Old 05-14-05, 06:40 PM
cawahoo
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Old house wiring garage..

Hi I live in a 55yr old house that only had 1 receptical in the garage so I went and rewired 3 new boxes to run a garage door opener and a deep freezer and to run tools when needed. Now the problem I am having is when I flipped the breaker it tripped, so after doing some trouble shooting I left the ground off in which everything worked then reapplied the ground and it tripped again. I have checked all connections and cant find any place that I have a exposed wire, I have also grounded to each box, steel being used. Has anybody ever experienced this problem that could help me because it is driving me nuts...
 
  #2  
Old 05-14-05, 07:55 PM
AdamLPerry
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Can you Clarify?

I'll try to help, but I need to know a few things first:
1. Did you replace the single existing outlet with a grounded one.
2. Was the original outlet grounded?
3. How did you run the wires from one box to the other -- was there a chance for the insulation to be scraped off or poked with a screw or something?
4. Does the breaker trip if everythin gis unpluged? If not, try re-connecting things one by one until the circuit pops -- you might have a defective appliance.
 
  #3  
Old 05-14-05, 09:39 PM
J
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5. Does the breaker that trips have a test button on it?
 
  #4  
Old 05-15-05, 06:22 AM
R
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One common problem is that ground wires are bare in regular NM type cable, and these bare wires can contact the screws on the side of a receptacle or switch. If the ground wire is properly connected to the ground buss at the panel, then such a shorted connection will immediately trip the circuit breaker. Make sure that all the grounds are well out of the way of ALL screws (except obviously the ground screw they connect to) and that the screws are not accidentally touching the sides of the metal boxes.

As an aside, this is a garage, and as such has special requirements. Specifically the receptacles need to be GFCI protected. Now you can leave the openers without GFCI protection, as they are up in the rafters, and you can (and should) leave the freezer without GFCI protection, but any exposed receptacles used for general purpose use MUST be GFCI protected.

One other comment. Don't expect to run many tools with the freezer running. You have quite a bit on this circuit. A better plan would have been to run two (or more) circuits.
 
  #5  
Old 05-15-05, 07:18 AM
J
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I have seen cable clamps too tight that shorted the cabling.
 
  #6  
Old 05-16-05, 09:21 PM
cawahoo
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Thanks all for the help. I will be giving it some use.
 
 

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