I have an old house with mostly k+t wiring and in one room only both duplex
outlets read "open ground" with my tester. All other outlets in the house
read correctly.The only other duplex in another room that is also on this
circuit reads correctly. I believe this circuit runs most of my overhead
lights.

When I test with the multimeter I cannot get 120V between hot and the
ground socket either but when I meter continuity between the neutral in
the central light socket and the neutrals in each duplex they show
connectivity so.....

any ideas?

"mgruft" wrote in message
news:2eb93ed6d8901064f6b5c150eedb2200@homerepairli ve.com...
I have an old house with mostly k+t wiring and in one room only both duplex
outlets read "open ground" with my tester. All other outlets in the house
read correctly.The only other duplex in another room that is also on this
circuit reads correctly. I believe this circuit runs most of my overhead
lights.

When I test with the multimeter I cannot get 120V between hot and the
ground socket either but when I meter continuity between the neutral in
the central light socket and the neutrals in each duplex they show
connectivity so.....

Knob and tube wiring that was modified with grounded outlets (they were
added) would explain this.

No ground wire, no 120 from hot to ground!

In article om, "mgruft" wrote:
I have an old house with mostly k+t wiring and in one room only both duplex
outlets read "open ground" with my tester. All other outlets in the house
read correctly.The only other duplex in another room that is also on this
circuit reads correctly. I believe this circuit runs most of my overhead
lights.

Knob and tube is a two-wire system. No ground wire available = open ground at
the outlet.

When I test with the multimeter I cannot get 120V between hot and the
ground socket either

No big surprise -- the multimeter is simply telling you the same thing the
tester is: there's nothing connected to the ground terminal.

but when I meter continuity between the neutral in
the central light socket and the neutrals in each duplex they show
connectivity so.....

So your neutrals are continuous. No surprise there either: if they weren't,
you would have noticed something not working, before now. What happens when
you check continuity between neutral in the light socket and *ground* at the
receptacles?

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

mgruft wrote:

I have an old house with mostly k+t wiring and in one room only both duplex
outlets read "open ground" with my tester. All other outlets in the house
read correctly.The only other duplex in another room that is also on this
circuit reads correctly. I believe this circuit runs most of my overhead
lights.

When I test with the multimeter I cannot get 120V between hot and the
ground socket either but when I meter continuity between the neutral in
the central light socket and the neutrals in each duplex they show
connectivity so.....

any ideas?

Neutral and ground aren't the same wire.

--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form .

mgruft wrote:
I have an old house with mostly k+t wiring and in one room only both
duplex outlets read "open ground" with my tester. All other outlets
in the house read correctly.The only other duplex in another room
that is also on this circuit reads correctly. I believe this circuit
runs most of my overhead lights.

When I test with the multimeter I cannot get 120V between hot and the
ground socket either but when I meter continuity between the neutral
in the central light socket and the neutrals in each duplex they show
connectivity so.....

any ideas?

I believe you are mixing up/confusing neutral and ground. Neutral is the
wide pin in an outlet (white wire) and ground is the round, 3rd opening if
the receptacle has one, or the bare or green wire in the ckt. Hot is the
smaller opening, Black wire. Green or bare wire is Ground. Neutral is NOT
the same as Ground.

Most likely when you read continuity, you are reading it through something
plugged into, and turned on, connected to one of the outlets someplace in
that ckt. If you pull the plugs from every receptacle on that circuit, and
be sure all light switches are turned OFF, you'll probably not get that
continuity reading.

With everything off and unplugged:
Black (narrow pin) to Ground: 120V ac (if less than 100V, it might be open;
just reading a phantom voltage).
White to Ground: 0Vac (or, if Ground is missing, a phantom voltage of about
50-90Vac).
Black to White: 120V ac (if less than 100V, it might be open; just reading
a phantom voltage).

If anything is left plugged in, you can get erroneous readings. e.g. a TV
is NOT really off; lots of equipment is like that.

HTH
Pop`