The wiring is not BX it is that old crappy clothlike insulation on
the outside and the actual wires have a plastic insulation. There are
two leads.... really lousey wiring and the previous owner was an
electrician. When I meved in 28 years ago, the electric dryer was
wired right into the box with no 3 prong plug.

The like fixure is on the ceiling. I put back the fixture with the
starting capacitor. Seems to work okay. As far as aground is
concerned, I will snake a wire (one element ) up to the fixture. I
probably should put the thingon a GFI circuit.




On Mon, 29 May 2006 16:23:37 GMT, "Joseph Meehan"
wrote:

mstrspy wrote:
Grounding the fixture requires a third wire at the fixture. I do not
have this since the house has old two wire romex or what ever the hell
they called it 50 years ago. I have lived in the house for 28 years
and never had "shock" issues at the kitchen sink. The outlets on the
counter top are grounded with GFI.
Grounding the ceiling fixture wil cost about $500.00 to get an
electrician. (they won't come in for less).
I think I will replace the fixture with the starter type rather than
rapid start. That seemed to work for many years.


If that is the case, then it is going to cost you $500 to get a safe
light. However chances are it has armored cable BX that has a metal jacket
around it. You need to make sure that it is still grounded and some Buba
has not spliced in a section of romex and not provided a proper ground.

If the lamp is not grounded as required and there is a fault, it can
kill someone. The reasons the codes require the grounding is because not
doing so has killed a significant number of people.