wrote:
I live in a 1960's condo in Souther California. Some of the circuit
breakers have been buzzing since I moved in a few months ago. One in
particular would lose power until it was manipulated into the right
position on the breaker box (some of the breakers are very loose). A
few days ago, the most problematic breaker stopped working, killed the
fridge, and I have not been able to get power back to this side of the
condo since.

The breaker of interest is a double 20amp 2-pole Type Q Zinsco R38.
There does not to appear to be a main breaker that powers down
everything in this box. Am I running any great risk by taking this
breaker out while with the wires still hooked up to it (or even
disconnecting the wires with the breaker switched off)? I am willing
to face anything but death; I'm young and healthy, and I fix cars and
computers and do some home repair (just fyi). My idea is to replace
the breaker with another, less critical, breaker from the box just (i
don't need all of the wall receptacles to have power).

A humming sound from breakers is pretty normal. A sizzling sound
indicates an arc. Having to move the breaker to get to work sounds like
a bad connection to the bus - arcing.

If you are moving the wires to another breaker you don't have to remove
the bad breaker, just move the wires. Wires from multiple breakers can
be pigtailed together and connected to a single breaker of the same amp
rating. If the circuit has 2 hot wires sharing a single neutral you have
to know how to do this safely. Kitchen and laundry cirucits shouldn't be
combined.

If you remove the breaker and leave it out you will have an open space
to the bus with the trim cover back on unless you have a filler plate -
not safe. If the breaker arced to the bus, that bus position is damaged
and a new breaker should not be installed there. On the otherhand, if
there is major damage to the breaker it should be removed. If the
breaker does not come out easily I would be real nervous about pulling a
Zinsco breaker without killing the panel.

As others have said there may well be a service disconnect outside. If
there is not protection ahead of the panel, concern about the panel
should increase. It would be a good idea to be thinking about replacing
the panel. As you have no doubt picked up from other posts, Zinsco has
known "issues".

Zinsco was bought by Sylvania long ago.

One source of information on Zinsco is:
http://www.inspect-ny.com/electric/Zinsco.htm
I havn't looked at the Zinsco section, but I think the section on
aluminum is very good.

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bud--