old house wiring problem


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Old 05-08-18, 06:21 AM
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old house wiring problem

I bought a house with an upstairs apartment that had been rewired, but not all the old wiring removed. I worked on doing that, which apparently was a mistake, as two outlets and a light then would not work. There is power to the outlets, but they still would not work. I tried replacing them; same thing. I tried reconnecting the old wiring, at which point there was no power to the outlets. Can anyone explain what is probably happening here so that i can fix it?
 
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Old 05-08-18, 07:01 AM
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There is power to the outlets, but they still would not work.

How do you know there is power to the outlets? What is the voltage, hot to ground and hot to neutral?
 
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Old 05-08-18, 07:41 AM
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f you are using a non contact tester they can't be used for serious testing, to likely to give false positives. If you are using a digital multimeter try using an analog multimeter instead.

not all the old wiring removed. I worked on doing that
Just for future reference standard practice is to abandon in place cutting the wires on both ends too short to be used again and/or shoving them back into a wall or ceiling space.
 
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Old 05-08-18, 07:55 AM
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If you truly have power but the circuit does not work there is an open connection on the neutral side somewhere . If you don't have power either a connection is bad or something was not fed when the old wiring was removed.
 
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Old 05-22-18, 06:44 AM
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Thanks!

An open neutral proved to be the problem. It took me awhile to find it, but you set me in the right direction. And the old wiring was in fact, as i had originally thought, not connected. Thanks!
 
 

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