GFCI wiring mess
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GFCI wiring mess
I would like to replace a 30 year old GFCI outlet with a newer one. In the box there are 5 wires. They are grey, green, black, white and red. The green is not a bare ground wire as we commonly see. All wires are encased in plastic protective sheathing. I have no idea what I'm up against here when I thought it would be a simple undo and replace setup of maybe 3 wires. Thanks for any assistance here everyone.
#2
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My best guess is that gray is ground, which would make the others line and load. Do you have a DMM? Can't you simply connect the new plug as the old one was connected, or did you already remove the old plug?
#3
They are grey, green, black, white and red.
You will be replacing like for like. Look at the back of the GFI. It should be labeled LINE and LOAD. The wires get removed from the old device and get transferred to the new device.
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I'm not very good with this stuff, although I have changed many outlets and switches before. It's when you're faced with an unknown that you stop before you act. I don't even have a new outlet yet. I pulled the old one to see what I would need when buying the new. I'm just not sure what wiring comes on a new GFCI outlet. Would it have these 5 colored wires for me to make a color by color swap?
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Hi Pete, your diagram makes me wish it were set up that way. Then it's just, undo this and place it there....that's my speed. This outlet, a SLATER GFCI from 1985, appears to have a ll 5 of these wire permanently embedded in the body of the outlet. They are NOT screwed to it like common receptacles. All 5 wires literally come from inside the piece itself. Am I in a bad place here? Thank you for your quick reply.
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Hi Ray, not a mobile home, no. Normal stick built colonial from the 80's. My question is do I cut the existing 5 wires, strip them then attach them to the new GFCI? It's just not clear to me where these wires originate from inside this box, it's pretty full. And what purpose does the GREY wire serve here? Thanks again
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wiring pics
OK, here are pics of extended wiring and the face of the outlet. A bit hard to see is the bundle right at the front of the box which has 2 white wires and a grey wire. Behind that in the box is a bare copper ground attached to the plastic covered green coming to outlet. Hope these help more.
#13
Old gfi's had the wires into the device that spliced to the house wires. Just undo the splice and move to the labeled terminals.
#14
Be sure to ID the load wires so that they end up on the LOAD terminals. You can add a short black wire to the two wires for the load black or undo the splice and connect both to the screw terminal which is designed for two wires.
#15
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They are grey, green, black, white and red.
Gray is never ground. Green is ground.
Gray is never ground. Green is ground.
So...red/gray are load, black/white are line, and green is ground? Like such...
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What great help you all have been for someone having a hard time with this situation. All I need to do now is get a new GFCI receptacle and transfer wires accordingly. Thanks so much to everyone!