Older home with 2 prong ungrounded outlets

I want to replace the outdated outlets with grounded outlets. I pulled some of the outlets out of the boxes and this is what I have:
The boxes are metal
The wiring has 2 conductors encased in a flexible metal jacket
The metal jacket is stripped and terminated under clamps where it enters the boxes
The 2 conductors go to the receptacles

Can I remove the old receptacle and replace with new and land the ground wire under the clamp somehow with the metal jacket? Or under a screw tapped through the metal box?

The house has a ground rod installed outside and a relatively large bare copper wire going in where the circuit breaker panel is.
Someone "kind of" upgraded to a new circuit breaker panel. I need to remove the cover and see whats up in there yet.

I would guess I would also need to make sure the jackets from all the cables get to a ground bar in the panel somehow? and attach the ground wire with them and also tie the commons in the panel to the grounds?

Any help with how to properly terminate this stuff would be appreciated.

 

First the ground rod has absolutely nothing to do with grounding receptacles.

Secondly the wiring method would need to be suitable as a grounding means before you could run a grounding conductor to the box.

Does your cable have a thin bond strip? You may be able to see this near the connectors at the panel.

 

If you find that there is no grounding strip on the cable, as Jim stated, your worst case scenario would be to install a GFCI receptacle on the first location from the panel, then feed the remainder of the receptacles (3 wire) from the LOAD side. You will not have a "ground", but will legally be able to install 3 hole receptacles and use the GFCI feature for personnel protection. In the GFCI package are stickers you will use on each cover plate, indicating "Ground Fault Protected" and a second one that states "No Equipment Ground".

 

I understand what you are saying. Thanks for the quick responses also.
So Jim - I need to check for a "thin bond strip". By this I assume there may (or may not) be a bare smaller gauge wire that runs with the other wiring and would be coming out the end of the jacket with the insulated conductors?
If I do find a thin bond strip, how would I proceed?

I understand your installation Larry. That may be a relatively easy alternative.
Does it matter that some of the load side may go on to switch plates and then to lighting?

 

Lighting is generally not GFCI protected, but if it is on the same circuit, no harm will come if you run it off the load side. Most often lighting is separated from receptacle circuits. Not in stone, however.

 

If the bond strip is present the cable qualifies as a grounding means. A jumper could then be run between the box and the devices to ground them.

 

It's not a wire as much as a part of the spiral metal jacket. Basically you can't rely on only the spiral metal to act as a ground, but if it also has the bond strip manufactured into the spiral, then it can be used as a ground.

 

Got it. I'll check and post back. You guys are GREAT! This site is an awesome resource.

 

Ok - There was no thin bonding strip. So - I installed a GFCI at the first location from the circuit breaker panel. I then hooked the rest of the circuit to the load side.
Immediately the GFCI tripped when I checked the first hookup. I thought I was going to lose my mind. I traced the circuit out. It appeared to only go to 4 outlets around the room. Finally I noticed a stairwell light leading to the basement was out. The upstairs switch was on the opposite side of the wall from the outlets and was on the same circuit.
Turns out the stairwell light had 3-way switches installed at the top and bottom of the staircase.
Since they didn't have enough conductors for the 3 way switch they used the wires for travelers and had no neutral. Then -at the light - they grabbed a nearby neutral from a pull chain in the basement that was close by, but it was on a different circuit. I thought I was going crazy! Anybody had that one? What else am I going to run into??? Anyway, I think my mind is right - now....

 

There is no telling the creative engineering that has been done in older homes. Glad you found the issue.

 

Oh yes, you'll see a goofed up three way switch somewhere in virtually every house of a certain age.

 

Had one where the neutral was on a different meter from a different source. Garage with apartment above with a separate meter drop from a different transformer. They ran a 3-way for the garage lights from the house but didn't have enough wires so picked up a neutral in the garage apartment panel.

 

OK Ray - You Win!
That's one of those, under similar circumstances, where someone could say - "I got shocked after I killed the main, and pulled the meter!"

 

You can also use a GFCI circuit breaker , in stead of a GFCI receptacle , if the Romex serving the circuit / load only has one " hot " .

But GFCI breakers are often more expensive than GFCI receptacles . The biggest chore , is sometimes , determining which receptacle is the first one feed by that circuit / Romex .

Neither solves the problem you ran into with someone " sharing " neutrals between circuits . :-(

When you start installing 3 prong receptacles , FWIIW , they make " self grounding " receptacles . They do not require a ground wire , when installed in a properly grounded metal box .

God bless
Wyr

 

Good points. Luckily the circuits were relatively easy to follow and determine which outlet was first in the run (closest to the panel). I did use the self grounding 3 prong receptacles. I still used the stickers stating both GFCI Protected Circuit and No Equipment Ground because the metal flex didn't have the thin bonding strip of wire running in the jacket. When I check them with an outlet checker or a meter they appear to be grounded because of the metal conduit and metal boxes, but in fact they technically aren't.
The second circuit I changed over immediately tripped from a load side neutral again. I finally found a thin copper wire inside one of the bedroom ceiling lights that was wire-nutted to the the white neutral.

 

Excellent job of troubleshooting that one.