"RogerT" wrote in message
...

RBM wrote:
"Aaron" wrote in message
...
On Mar 15, 10:50 pm, "Ralph Mowery"
wrote:
"Aaron" wrote in message

...

I have been trying to trace down where a circuit starts showing
voltage between my ground wire and neutral wire. I found the a
receptacle on the circuit that is correct where the neutral and
ground show 0V, and then a box which I believe is the next
receptacle that shows 120V between the ground and neutral. I have
looked in both boxes and everything looks correct.

1st Box
H-N = 120V
H-G = 120V
N-G = 0V

2nd Box
H-N = 120V
H-G = 0V
N-G = 120V

What can cause the above scenario. A short? A broken wire?
Also, is this dangerous? I think it has been like this for awhile.


It looks like somewhere the neutral and the hot wires have been
reversed. While you are probabaly not in danger of a meltdown, do not
use the
socket that has the faulty wiring.
Also something else I just thought of. Downstream from the bad box,
there is a light and the switch leg shows voltage between the neutral
and the ground when the switch is off.

More evidence that the black and white wires got reversed. This
switch is now breaking the neutral, and the hot is going directly to
the fixture.

I am just curious....,

If I had a situation like that (I don't), would one way to try to figure
out where the wires got switched be to use a continuity checker?

In other words, turn off all of the power and then use a continuity
checker with a long wire and alligator clip attached, and try to trace
which wire from the first box has continuity to which wire in the second
box, etc.

It's a little difficult. You have to disconnect the conductors from their
line and any loads first. Otherwise you get backfeeds. The problem is that
you don't have any good way of knowing that you've got everything
disconnected.
Branch circuit wiring generally goes, "as the crow flies", so you can
usually find these problems by opening all related junction boxes in the
vicinity of the problem