Short story made long, my BIL's breaker feeding his pool house kept
tripping. The Black wire was causing the breaker in the house to trip
so I...

Cut and capped the Black wire on both ends
Left the Red wire alone (connected to power on both ends)
Taped both ends of the White wire Black and connected to power
Taped both ends of the Green wire White and connected to nuetral

The pool house is fed by metal conduit (30 years old) that is not in
contact with main house panel.

So now the pool house is 'grounded' via the conduit and the house is
grounded but now they are not sharing a ground.

Should the nuetral bar of the pool house now be bonded to the box
since the box doesn't have a ground running back to the main panel in
the house?

There is zero chance of pulling new wires because of the number of
bends required to get to the pool house and the size of the conduit.

RayV wrote:
Short story made long, my BIL's breaker feeding his pool house kept
tripping. The Black wire was causing the breaker in the house to trip
so I...

How was it causing the breaker to trip...was it a GFCI breaker? If it
was overloading the breaker through normal use, then changing conductors
isn't likely to help.

So now the pool house is 'grounded' via the conduit and the house is
grounded but now they are not sharing a ground.

Should the nuetral bar of the pool house now be bonded to the box
since the box doesn't have a ground running back to the main panel in
the house?

I believe so, yes. However I think you need to also drive ground rods.
You might want to check the local codes.

Chris

"RayV" wrote in message
ups.com...
Short story made long, my BIL's breaker feeding his pool house kept
tripping. The Black wire was causing the breaker in the house to trip
so I...

Cut and capped the Black wire on both ends
Left the Red wire alone (connected to power on both ends)
Taped both ends of the White wire Black and connected to power
Taped both ends of the Green wire White and connected to nuetral

The pool house is fed by metal conduit (30 years old) that is not in
contact with main house panel.

So now the pool house is 'grounded' via the conduit and the house is
grounded but now they are not sharing a ground.

Should the nuetral bar of the pool house now be bonded to the box
since the box doesn't have a ground running back to the main panel in
the house?

There is zero chance of pulling new wires because of the number of
bends required to get to the pool house and the size of the conduit.

This is strange and could be dangerous!

The presence of a black wire and a red wire suggests a 240-V feed. If you
eliminate the black, you are only feeding 120-V.

It is a code violation to use the white wire as a hot in this situation.
The tape identifier is meant for switch loops and those kinds of situations.

It is a code violation to use a green wire as a current carrying conductor
in this situation.

If the conduit is not providing a continuous safety ground (you stated that
it is not in contact with the main panel) you could have serious problems.
Is there a bare ground wire? How was the green wire originally connected?

On May 22, 11:59 am, RayV wrote:
Short story made long, my BIL's breaker feeding his pool house kept
tripping. The Black wire was causing the breaker in the house to trip
so I...

Cut and capped the Black wire on both ends
Left the Red wire alone (connected to power on both ends)
Taped both ends of the White wire Black and connected to power
Taped both ends of the Green wire White and connected to nuetral

The pool house is fed by metal conduit (30 years old) that is not in
contact with main house panel.

So now the pool house is 'grounded' via the conduit and the house is
grounded but now they are not sharing a ground.

Should the nuetral bar of the pool house now be bonded to the box
since the box doesn't have a ground running back to the main panel in
the house?

There is zero chance of pulling new wires because of the number of
bends required to get to the pool house and the size of the conduit.

On May 22, 11:59 am, RayV wrote:
Short story made long, my BIL's breaker feeding his pool house kept
tripping. The Black wire was causing the breaker in the house to trip
so I...

Cut and capped the Black wire on both ends
Left the Red wire alone (connected to power on both ends)
Taped both ends of the White wire Black and connected to power
Taped both ends of the Green wire White and connected to nuetral

The pool house is fed by metal conduit (30 years old) that is not in
contact with main house panel.

So now the pool house is 'grounded' via the conduit and the house is
grounded but now they are not sharing a ground.

Should the nuetral bar of the pool house now be bonded to the box
since the box doesn't have a ground running back to the main panel in
the house?

There is zero chance of pulling new wires because of the number of
bends required to get to the pool house and the size of the conduit.

What exactly is causing the Black wire to trip the breaker? Have you
checked for continuity from the black to the white, the green, and the
conduit? As Charles pointed out it is against current codes to re-
identify conductors that are smaller the 4AWG in this type of
installation. I don't have access to a code book at the moment but
the current installation does not sound compliant even if the wiring
was not re-identified. You say repulling a wire is not an option but
could you repull if you pulled out ALL the conductors and replaced
with new in one pull? Another thought is that if the Black wire is
tripping the breaker because it is shorted to the pipe somewhere it
would be better to re-identify the Black as the equipment ground and
re-identify the Green as the former Black wire. It shouldn't matter
if it's touching the pipe since they are bonded together anyway.
NOTE: That would still violate the NEC but it would be better then
the current installation. I'd do a little research in the NEC before
I started adding ground rods and leaving it this way.

RayV wrote:
Short story made long, my BIL's breaker feeding his pool house kept
tripping. The Black wire was causing the breaker in the house to trip
so I...

Cut and capped the Black wire on both ends
Left the Red wire alone (connected to power on both ends)
Taped both ends of the White wire Black and connected to power
Taped both ends of the Green wire White and connected to nuetral

The pool house is fed by metal conduit (30 years old) that is not in
contact with main house panel.

So now the pool house is 'grounded' via the conduit and the house is
grounded but now they are not sharing a ground.

Should the nuetral bar of the pool house now be bonded to the box
since the box doesn't have a ground running back to the main panel in
the house?

There is zero chance of pulling new wires because of the number of
bends required to get to the pool house and the size of the conduit.

That is now FUBAR. Call an electrician or at minimum, get some professional
advice. You are so wrong on so many points it could be a very real problem.