RBM wrote:
"RB" wrote in message
...
DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Jun 12, 9:11 am, RB wrote:
fftt wrote:
On Jun 11, 12:50 pm, RB wrote:
RickMerrill wrote:
RBM wrote:
"RB" wrote in message
...
fftt wrote:
On Jun 10, 2:32 pm, (Doug Miller) wrote:
In article ,
wrote:
DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Jun 10, 3:07 pm, RB wrote:
I have a partially-dead GFI circuit:
This circuit powers two electrical outlet in the back bedrom
and
a light
in a bathroom, as well as a wall outlet in that bathroom which
has a GFI
receptacle. I needed to move that receptacle, so I uncouple
the
wiring,
ran it to the new location, then re-connected the receptacle.
In the
process two of the wires shorted together briefly, but did not
trip the
breaker.
Now all looks good, the GFI LED is lit. The bathroom light
switch works.
But the wall sockets in that bedroom no longer have power.
Is there some peculiarity about GFI that would explain that?
In the process two of the wires shorted together briefly
Help us understand this situation:
You have an existing circuit with wires that were running
through a
wall. You disconnected the wires from the GFCI, pulled them out
of the
wall, fished them to the new location and reconnected them to
the
GFCI...while they were live?
No, I left out some things for brevity.
1 - turned CB off
2 - disconnected cable from receptacle
3 - cut the ends of the wires, staggered cuts, insulated.
4 - wrapped with duct tape
5 - fed into new wall space.
6 - turned CB on
Now you have live, uncapped wires inside the wall. Not very
smart.
7 - dinner break
8 - Drilled hole in new wall.
With a live wire behind it. Not very smart.
9 - fished wire out with coathanger
Fished *live* wire out with coathanger. Not very smart.
10- grabbed wire with pliers to pull the slack
Grabbed *live* wire with pliers. Not very smart.
Perhaps you should leave future electrical work to someone with
the
sense to
do it safely.
IMO the problem is not GFI related but dead short / tripped the
breaker related.
It depends on how the existing installation is wired up......
A dead short will send a whole lot of current through your
circuit.
If you have any questionable (high resistance) connections along
this
run they will have been zapped pretty hard.
My ex-boss, now retired, did something similar but not quite as
unsafe.....he wound up re-setting the breaker having mistakenly
wired
in a dead short.
When we tried to re-set the breaker, it blew instantly.
He re-set it again & it held but everything downstream of his
mistake
as dead.
I went over to his house on Sat afternoon & tried to diagnose the
problem.......we even eventually found the problem. A back stab
receptacle that was installed YEARS ago ..one of the hot wires was
loose, corroded & burned. Did a pigtail installation & replaced
receptacle with a back wire one.
everything fixed
in your case, my guess is a bad connection (wire nut, back stab,
??)
do oyu get any volatge reading? in my ex-bosses case we were
getting
~2V......I'm guessing that the bad connection had such high
resistance
nearly all of the 120v was dropped across it
That makes sense. I need to pull the outlets and the switch and
take
a look at the connections.
I did check the GFI with my plug-in polarity tester, and it showed
two green lights as it's supposed to, so I did wire it back
correctly.
thanks for the input.
If you only have one cable (black , white, ground) connected to the
GFCI outlet, and it is wired and works properly, there is no
connection problem from that point back. The things that are not
working must have a connection problem at some other junction, not
directly associated with this GFCI. I would check the connections in
the bathroom switch box.
Is there a florescent lamp in the GFCI circuit? How long is the GFCI
run?
There is no flourescent lamp in the fun.
There may be a CF bulb in one of the fixtures, but it is not
affected -
lights work.
The circuit in question has the following on it:
An unswitched outlet that powers computer gear and desk accessories
A switched outlet that powers two PCs and peripherals.
(both these outlets are dead)
Two recessed can lights, switched, in the adjacent bathroom
The GFCI outlet.
(The above two work fine)
I am not smart enough to visualize how all these interconnect.
Let us know the fix when you get it all worked out.
cheers
Bob
I'd love to do that.
But last night the circuits all started working normally again.
Looks like an intermittent connection.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Now it is even more important to trace the wires and find the problem.

Loose connections can mean arcing, heat and other problems that can
lead to fires.

If this were my house I'd shut that circuit down *immediately* and
begin troubleshooting. If you are unsure of how to go about that, call
an electrician. This is not a situation that should be left as is.
I agree, but immediately isn't going to happen until this weekend.

This is possibly a good opportunity to find where the intermittent "open
circuit" is. With things plugged into the formerly dead outlets, and turned
on, bang with your hand on every outlet and switch in the vicinity of those
that had been dead. There is a very good possibility that when you bang on
the switch or outlet box where the connection is loose, it will cause the
things that are plugged in, to flicker, then you just need to open that box
and tighten all the connections

A very good suggestion, thank you.
I'll probably not do that with the PCs plugged in though