"Sam Goldwasser" wrote in message
...
"William Sommerwerck" writes:

"Rick" wrote in message ...
William Sommerwerck wrote:
"Rick" wrote in message
...


Set the meter to AC 750V range. Closed the breaker. Tested
black to neutral: no reading. Tested red to neutral: In a split
second "FFFZZZZ!" and the wire inside the insulated test lead
fried and shot out of the test probe.

Non-sequitur. It sounds as if you had the probes inserted in the current
jacks.


Nope. I checked it twice before testing. And since it was brought up I
looked at the meter again - correct jacks.

Your reasoning wouldn't explain why it didn't 'zap' when testing the
first 120v side of the 240v receptacle. I got no reading at all on the
white and black side. (No fried test lead either.) It went 'zap' when I
tested the white and red side.

But black to neutral might be little or no voltage. Maybe.

Huh?

Black-white should be 115 VAC
Red-white should be 115 VAC
Black-red should be 230 VAC

White-green or white to bare may be near 0 VAC

Assuming it wired with proper color code.

If white-black was 0 V, then there is a problem. But sounds more like
the meter was on the wrong range, connected wrong, or broken.

Regardless, voltage ranges have extremely high impedances. It should be
"impossible" to pump enough current through them to blow up the wiring.

Yep, something is fishy....

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/


Yep, something is fishy, and I suspect the wiring in the receptacle. A few
years ago, I had a dryer that kept burning out heating elements, the temp inside
the dryer would get scorching hot, and if I didn't keep a close watch on it,
would burn the clothes.
Since the dryer was about 20 years old, I bought a new dryer. After a while,
the new dryer started acting the same as the old one. Digging into the problem,
what I found was that the 10ga wiring in the box was too short to fit properly
into the receptacle. One of the wires was barely touching the receptacle screw.
After a lot of tugging and cursing, I finally pulled enough of the wire into the
box to make proper connections. Been working like a champ since.

If the OP's probe got zapped just by inserting it into the receptacle, I can
only surmise that the receptacle was broken and the internal contacts were loose
inside. Plugging the probe into the socket moved the terminals enough that they
shorted.

At any rate, the solution is to replace the receptacle, taking lots of care for
safety's sake, and be sure it's wired correctly.

--
Dave M
MasonDG44 at comcast dot net (Just substitute the appropriate characters in the
address)

"In theory, there isn't any difference between theory and practice. In
practice, there is." - Yogi Berra