Tom and Grim, thanks for the informative help.
This house was built in 1969 and for whatever reason, there is no ground
going anywhere. There was one grounded outlet in the basement, grounded to
the city water pipe. I have followed suit and grounded a few outlets
upstairs by running separate ground wire to this same pipe. This is
probably not strictly code, but I think it's safe.
As for the garage, I can see no definite ground out there at all. Only a
very large three conductor cable has been routed out there. I did typo, the
red and black go to the fuses and the white just goes to a lug from which
other connections are made. The white is "grounded" to the box itself, but
the box is completely isolated (mounted on wood, no conductive connections
other than the three wires) so I think this is pointless.
My plan of attack then is to wire the black and red to the spades
(horizontal looking connections) of the outlet and the white to the ground.
Then at the box, ground the white wire somehow. I will check to see if the
conduit from the floor of the garage is continuous to the ground in the
house, but now that I think about it, I really doubt this is the case. The
cable looks like a kind that would just be run through bare ground (looks
like the kind I'd buy at Home Depot, only much bigger).
I'll try to answer Tom's questions about the two boxes in the garage. The
larger box is where the 3-conductor cable enters from the conduit in the
floor. Inside, the cable splits apart so that the white goes to a lug on
the side of the box and the red and black go to two large fuses (cylindrical
shaped fuses). The large lever switch is external to the box and disables
the fuses when in the off position. The smaller box works from the white
wire connection at the lug and from the "input" side of the two fuses,
unaffected by the fuses or the switch (it's as if the larger box doesn't
exist to the smaller box, except to reduce the wire guage to a manageable
size). All you really see when you open the larger box is the dual fuse
arrangement right in the center. It looks to me like it's made to make 220.
Back to work...
"Grim" wrote in message
...
"Grim" wrote in message
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Snip
Based on the additional information you have provided, I would go in the
direction Tom is taking you in. Having the garage detached is a much
different scenario.
Grim
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