On Sun, 18 Oct 2015 11:17:10 -0400, Mr.E wrote:

On Sun, 18 Oct 2015 07:33:29 -0700 (PDT), trader_4
wrote:

On Sunday, October 18, 2015 at 9:13:33 AM UTC-4, Texas Kingsnake wrote:
"Micky" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 16 Oct 2015 17:29:57 -0400, "Texas Kingsnake"
wrote:


I am thinking the clamp has loosened over time. I am going to get a
well-insulated screwdriver, put on very heavy rubber gloves and am going
to
try to tighten the clamp which may have not been tightened in 40 years.

I'm not telling you whether to do this or not, but if you decide to do
it, well-insulated screwdriver means wrapping electric tape or maybe
silicon tape over the whole shaft and blade, overlapping so there's
more than one layer, so when the screwdriver slips, only the very tip
will likely connect electrically.

Also helps to prevent the reflexive action of guiding the tip of the
screwdriver to the target screw with your (foolishly) ungloved left hand.

DAMHIKT

Short status report and then back to longer replies to everyone when this is
over. Gotta prep the area for the wire-ectomy and move some loads to other
circuits not on the sparking side.

Left hot wire is heat damaged and that damage may extend into the 100A
breaker (dual? tie-handled? - not sure of the right terms) but it's the
breaker that takes the street feed on both sides. The frikkin' wire seems
to be aluminum.

The left feed's bare metal is dark and discolored and could be either. The
neutral wire is un-insulated and very loosely braided and silver colored,
which leads me to believe I've got an aluminum feed from the meter. Crap.

All the new construction I've seen here has used aluminum for service
entrance for decades. It meets code, it's safe and it costa a lot less
than copper.

One or two more thing to be attentive of:

Most box and breaker terminals that are aluminum or are suitable for use
with aluminum conductors are tin plated. This tin plating is easily
burned or scraped away. Without the plating, corrosion protectant
becomes vital to keep the connection secure.
Please be aware that the torque spec on the lugs has a double purpose as
aluminum wire , if too tight, will cold flow. Loose connections will

What is cold flow. I can imagine that if you tighten too much, you
pancake the aluminum? And you can just keep tightening and
tightening?

continue to heat and further loosen so the final torque should be close
to guard against both unequal expansion and cold flow.