This was very helpful even though the problem in video wasn't my exact problem... using this method of going down the line of outlets and junctions to find the short and process of elimination was exactly how I found mine!
I've done this so many times it's elementary to me. Your dealing with 10/2 from around 1970 most electricians did a fast job. I've came across so many homes built durring that time that wasn't done correctly it was insane. Even the home I live in now. If you want extra lead pigtail the whites together and the blacks/reds together to make extra lead. Oh and use Wago level connectors. Them bad boys are the truth. Use the same sized gauge wires in the junction boxes for the receptacles. I'm thinking yours is 20-25 amp breaker mostly 20 though.
I would have pigtailed the wires (parallel) so that it makes it easier to diagnose the following time. Only the bad receptacle would have failed and not stop the rest in the series. Not an electrician but have been around a few good ones.
One needs to be careful to assume wire colors mean anything. That’s the last thing I would entertain. I would have grabbed annexation cord and tested for continuity between one outlet to another. I learned this valuable trick on a previous video.
When working on Mobile home wiring they do this all the time, the wires are short in the wall behind almost every fixture, outlet, and receptacle, as an Electrician who mostly works on renovation I often feel like I would like to beat on the other Electricians for just this sort of thing.. When I was trained I was told I should leave a minimum of 6 inches in the box for every run on each side. Back in the day though they did not like to do this. They thought it was wasteful. My line of thinking though especially with Solid core wire like this "Which is common in Residential applications" if you break a wire.. You are rewiring the entire run. That's it. This was very common in the mid to late 70's and into the mid 90's. I guess somewhere in there someone grew a brain and started telling them "No"!
Pigtail the wires together and have one wire go to the receptacle one black one white and one ground wire then you'd have more room to pull the outlet in and out
In the uk we test live to neural we get 240v live to earth we get 240v neutral to earth zero. As you use AC the same as us you should have the same results ie hot to neutral 220v hot to ground 220v neutral to ground zero v . It shows the circuit is connected to ground correctly. If the circuit is dead the you are testing continueurty of the ground wire /earth this is correct it you bridge the two wires at the other end.
Add pigtail wires to the device then connect to the existing wires with wire nuts. Or they make outlets that have holes in the back to push the wires into. Straighten the existing wires and insert them into the rear of the outlet. IMO, pigtails are the way to go.
Short wires (which I extend with pigtails) and boxes that are the smallest I’ve seen. And replacing the boxes is damn near impossible since the house is made of concrete blocks, and the boxes are essentially cemented in.
I had the same issue with an old house, not only was the old wiring too short but another inch of it from entering the box was not insulated. I had to cut the wall and put in a junction box and then extend new wires back into the box.
Leaving too much insulation, the screw does NOT tighten the wire, thus the more current drawn the more heat is made by a bad connection, The bottom of the screw head MUST be against the actual wire. The wire is to be wrapped clockwise so end of wire is on the right side of the screw, then w Longnose pliers pull the end closer to the stock wire so it is like a loop around the screw. DO not use BACK STAB though legal it is a suck-ass way to wire, lots of current over time will weaken the springs and switch/outlet will be faulty and cause troubles.
The barely enough conductors is not uncommon especially in older homes. Maybe code enforcement (if any) were not as strict back in the day. I think most new work people know to leave more, 6-inches most jurisdictions.
You should have wired this instead of in series it should have wired it parallel maybe they just didn't want to because of the box size but that wouldve helped you a lot
I pulled out an old electric outlet, to replace it with a GFCI. I accidentally touched some part of the old outlet while removing it on the metal box, and saw a small spark. (I thought the fuse was out, but maybe I had the wrong fuse out). Now, I am reading 14 volts from hot to neutral, and from hot to the metal box(ground). I've pulled every fuse in the panel, and still see 14 volts! Note, the outlet was working fine before my accident (although the hot/neutral were reversed). What did I do break when that old receptacle sparked? Did I burn/short a wire, or junction? How do I find the problem. I cannot use continuity tests since I have 14 volts present. Help!
So I guess your house is old and has fuses,not breakers.first off your going to have to find what fuse gives that line the power so u can disconnect it/kill it. Then u said the black and ground was swapped so that tells me it's like what I had your going to have to go down stream and find where its backwards at. Take receptacle back out and check wires see if that makes power on white if so it backwards somewhere and make sure your meter is ac not DC voltage
Sometimes you put the black tester on the ground and the red on the hot and neutral wire and other times you put the red tester on ground and the black on the hot and neutral wires. Is that the correct way to test wires?
lol why did they originally switch the light switch at the Neutral? yeah it breaks the circuit, but you are supposed to switch the hot. lol if it gets a neutral through ground, or if you become the neutral path to ground unscreing a bulb or what have you, you get a surprise! Never switch the neutral because the neutral is tied into ground. lol
@@okaro6595 I am not so sure I still follow the thread of the conversation, it has been so long since I watched this and commented on it, I know as a certified Electrician the reason why they switch it at the hot is to break the circuit because the Neutral and the ground are connected together both at the panel and at the transformer outside, if you were to touch the switch leg and be standing on the ground at the same time, say "Barefoot" and you happened to complete that circuit, you would definitely light up before the light bulb would, but back in the days when they really did not understand that principal they both had non polarized plugs, which could be plugged in either way, and they switched circuits at the neutral. Bigger problem is that at the panel, only the Hot is switched, and for GFCIs only the hot is switched, so if you turned off the breaker you would be fine, but if you turned off the switch and it was at the Neutral, you go to work on the light fixture and accidentally touched a ground, you might as well be BBQ. I hope I am making sense to context. IDK though. been a year
Excellent! Curious to know if the comment saying neutral shouldn't go to the light switch was correct or not. Should ig be the black or hot instead? Another comment said u were inconsistent with the multimeter probes. If u were, i didn't see it.
Evelyne, not sure the comment your ref.. too but here is a link that has a pic of what I had.Its the first pic using the black wire. Not sure how old your wiring is but check your local codes for the up to-date wiring linkdhome.com/articles/how-to-wire-a-smart-switch
that a cod violation in code you must have at least 3 inches extra wires sticking out of the the box but his house was built before that code may need to make some pig tails
@@rustbucket3574 I have always heard that the wires should extend a MINIMUM of 6 to 8 inches past the wall. It just makes it easier to work on for you or the next guy.
Arthur it's been so long since I worked on it I had to go back and look. Lol. So the reason it still worked is because 2 receptacles where wrong. One had white and black on one side but not same group of wires so that swapped the power to white then on receptacle 2 they put both whites on one. So it never got to feed back to box to short it just swapped whites to power down the line. So I got a little jolt when I was wiring the light. I would have never know if I didnt check the power on wires to make sure it was off at light when I had the switch off
I did come across a house like this. My solution was to ask the home owners wife for of her pube’s. She had some blacks and some greys . I wired it up and it worked Lolololol the customer was satisfied.
![Oasis - Oasis Live '25 [Official Trailer]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/gol_JnuEtKM/mqdefault.jpg)
This was very helpful even though the problem in video wasn't my exact problem... using this method of going down the line of outlets and junctions to find the short and process of elimination was exactly how I found mine!
Love how all resi boxes have 0 inches of wire sticking out of the boxes, really helps out for repairs. 6 inches OUT OF THE BOX is code minimum
I followed your guidance and was able to find a broken wire that was shorting and trimming the circuit breaker.
I'm glad you could find it and fix it. Good Job
Always wrap the wire around the screw clockwise, so when you tighten the screws the wire stays under the screw
Saw this on recommended, and you made me laugh multiple times. Have a great day!
I've done this so many times it's elementary to me. Your dealing with 10/2 from around 1970 most electricians did a fast job. I've came across so many homes built durring that time that wasn't done correctly it was insane. Even the home I live in now. If you want extra lead pigtail the whites together and the blacks/reds together to make extra lead. Oh and use Wago level connectors. Them bad boys are the truth. Use the same sized gauge wires in the junction boxes for the receptacles. I'm thinking yours is 20-25 amp breaker mostly 20 though.
I would have pigtailed the wires (parallel) so that it makes it easier to diagnose the following time. Only the bad receptacle would have failed and not stop the rest in the series. Not an electrician but have been around a few good ones.
Should have started with an outlet tester and checked all outlets.
Current code in many states requires an extra 6" of wire for obvious reasons.
One needs to be careful to assume wire colors mean anything. That’s the last thing I would entertain. I would have grabbed annexation cord and tested for continuity between one outlet to another. I learned this valuable trick on a previous video.
I have worked as an electrician in 3 states. I have come across your no extra wire to work with quite often usually in houses from the mid 70s back.
When working on Mobile home wiring they do this all the time, the wires are short in the wall behind almost every fixture, outlet, and receptacle, as an Electrician who mostly works on renovation I often feel like I would like to beat on the other Electricians for just this sort of thing.. When I was trained I was told I should leave a minimum of 6 inches in the box for every run on each side. Back in the day though they did not like to do this. They thought it was wasteful. My line of thinking though especially with Solid core wire like this "Which is common in Residential applications" if you break a wire.. You are rewiring the entire run. That's it. This was very common in the mid to late 70's and into the mid 90's. I guess somewhere in there someone grew a brain and started telling them "No"!
I'm with you 85 studios
In my country to they don't know how to leave wire to work on the plugs and lights and that's when the swearing turns a bit blue
@@thunderstorm6616 OMG wow dude you deserve an Emmy.. HAHA my thoughts exactly. Where are you from?
You could wire nut and pigtail your neutrals and hots to give you some extra wire to work with. Been there done that!!
Pigtail the wires together and have one wire go to the receptacle one black one white and one ground wire then you'd have more room to pull the outlet in and out
Put green and yellow sleeving on yir cpcs or yir bare earth wires it's a safer job for inside your switches
In the uk we test live to neural we get 240v live to earth we get 240v neutral to earth zero. As you use AC the same as us you should have the same results ie hot to neutral 220v hot to ground 220v neutral to ground zero v . It shows the circuit is connected to ground correctly. If the circuit is dead the you are testing continueurty of the ground wire /earth this is correct it you bridge the two wires at the other end.
Add pigtail wires to the device then connect to the existing wires with wire nuts. Or they make outlets that have holes in the back to push the wires into. Straighten the existing wires and insert them into the rear of the outlet. IMO, pigtails are the way to go.
Short wires (which I extend with pigtails) and boxes that are the smallest I’ve seen. And replacing the boxes is damn near impossible since the house is made of concrete blocks, and the boxes are essentially cemented in.
How did it ever work? Looks like it would have blown the breaker or fuse immediately after the guy wired it.
It is just reversed polarity. It works as it is AC. One of the sockets had black and white on the same side. That reverses the polarity downstream.
Thanks for the video, dude!
I had the same issue with an old house, not only was the old wiring too short but another inch of it from entering the box was not insulated. I had to cut the wall and put in a junction box and then extend new wires back into the box.
DANG, that sucks hate that crap
I have the same camera dexterity. I'm a butterfingers . :)
Leaving too much insulation, the screw does NOT tighten the wire, thus the more current drawn
the more heat is made by a bad connection, The bottom of the screw head MUST be against the actual wire. The wire is to be wrapped clockwise so end of wire is on the right side of the screw,
then w Longnose pliers pull the end closer to the stock wire so it is like a loop around the screw.
DO not use BACK STAB though legal it is a suck-ass way to wire, lots of current over time will
weaken the springs and switch/outlet will be faulty and cause troubles.
The barely enough conductors is not uncommon especially in older homes. Maybe code enforcement (if any) were not as strict back in the day. I think most new work people know to leave more, 6-inches most jurisdictions.
You should have wired this instead of in series it should have wired it parallel maybe they just didn't want to because of the box size but that wouldve helped you a lot
if the wire to the receptacle is to short of a wire would you splice some extra wire or reroute a whole new one?
Pull out the box. Add a sheet load of wire with pigtails and push them into the new plastic boxes. Put in outlets with on/off switches and off u go.
Its called a service loop, plain Ole common courtesy. Trying to horde all copper scrap...lol
I guess, lol
I pulled out an old electric outlet, to replace it with a GFCI.
I accidentally touched some part of the old outlet while removing it on the metal box, and saw a small spark. (I thought the fuse was out, but maybe I had the wrong fuse out).
Now, I am reading 14 volts from hot to neutral, and from hot to the metal box(ground). I've pulled every fuse in the panel, and still see 14 volts!
Note, the outlet was working fine before my accident (although the hot/neutral were reversed).
What did I do break when that old receptacle sparked? Did I burn/short a wire, or junction? How do I find the problem. I cannot use continuity tests since I have 14 volts present. Help!
So I guess your house is old and has fuses,not breakers.first off your going to have to find what fuse gives that line the power so u can disconnect it/kill it. Then u said the black and ground was swapped so that tells me it's like what I had your going to have to go down stream and find where its backwards at. Take receptacle back out and check wires see if that makes power on white if so it backwards somewhere and make sure your meter is ac not DC voltage
Here is a good video on volts/current on the ground /open neutral scenario with Benjamin m.ruclips.net/video/q-RrufV6Gig/видео.html
Sometimes you put the black tester on the ground and the red on the hot and neutral wire and other times you put the red tester on ground and the black on the hot and neutral wires. Is that the correct way to test wires?
I'm testing with power off and in continuity not volt that's why I can test all wires
@@rustbucket3574 great thanks for that information I didn't know about texting without power. That's exactly what I need to do
You have either wire shorting to ground period .... bet its a staple on the stud
Rookie question- Would a plug in receptacle tester work for this situation with reverse polarity and shorts ?
It would with the reverse polarity, you would likely have to investigate where it's shorting yourself.
@@wackyweyland8857 THX!!
The neutral and ground bond in the panel...then the next white wire branches of the rest of the neutral
You can extend those wires with some wago lever nuts
You could add a little extra wire
lol why did they originally switch the light switch at the Neutral? yeah it breaks the circuit, but you are supposed to switch the hot. lol if it gets a neutral through ground, or if you become the neutral path to ground unscreing a bulb or what have you, you get a surprise! Never switch the neutral because the neutral is tied into ground. lol
Yea that's how I found out something was wrong lol, I got shocked!! Lol ,Dont know why the did it they had brain fart I guess
Did they? I think they just did not care which they switched as it works either way. I see no reason to specifically switch the neutral.
@@okaro6595 I am not so sure I still follow the thread of the conversation, it has been so long since I watched this and commented on it, I know as a certified Electrician the reason why they switch it at the hot is to break the circuit because the Neutral and the ground are connected together both at the panel and at the transformer outside, if you were to touch the switch leg and be standing on the ground at the same time, say "Barefoot" and you happened to complete that circuit, you would definitely light up before the light bulb would, but back in the days when they really did not understand that principal they both had non polarized plugs, which could be plugged in either way, and they switched circuits at the neutral. Bigger problem is that at the panel, only the Hot is switched, and for GFCIs only the hot is switched, so if you turned off the breaker you would be fine, but if you turned off the switch and it was at the Neutral, you go to work on the light fixture and accidentally touched a ground, you might as well be BBQ. I hope I am making sense to context. IDK though. been a year
A set of pigtails would have made it easier to work with instead of struggling to wire those short wires back to the receptacle.
You could've spliced some pig tails while you had them open . Always Next time 🍻
Add pigtails to the outlets
Excellent! Curious to know if the comment saying neutral shouldn't go to the light switch was correct or not. Should ig be the black or hot instead?
Another comment said u were inconsistent with the multimeter probes. If u were, i didn't see it.
Evelyne, not sure the comment your ref.. too but here is a link that has a pic of what I had.Its the first pic using the black wire. Not sure how old your wiring is but check your local codes for the up to-date wiring
linkdhome.com/articles/how-to-wire-a-smart-switch
@@rustbucket3574 Thank u!
Something happened to my lightswitch
The breaker didnt trip now the switch gets nothing
that a cod violation in code you must have at least 3 inches extra wires sticking out of the the box but his house was built before that code may need to make some pig tails
Yea, that person must have saved 2 cents on the short wires.
@@rustbucket3574 I have always heard that the wires should extend a MINIMUM of 6 to 8 inches past the wall. It just makes it easier to work on for you or the next guy.
I understand that the one receptacle was wired wrong, my dilemma how was there ever anything working?
Arthur it's been so long since I worked on it I had to go back and look. Lol. So the reason it still worked is because 2 receptacles where wrong. One had white and black on one side but not same group of wires so that swapped the power to white then on receptacle 2 they put both whites on one. So it never got to feed back to box to short it just swapped whites to power down the line. So I got a little jolt when I was wiring the light. I would have never know if I didnt check the power on wires to make sure it was off at light when I had the switch off
@@rustbucket3574 Thank you for your reply, your video was very helpful to me while installing a new GFCI receptacle.
You're complaining about short wires and then don't bother pigtailing and extend the wires.
Oh. hold the camera out in front of you so we dont godda look up your nose! LOL!
Sorry about that, still learning
Add jumper wires to extend the short shit.
How about pigtails to fix the short wire situation.
You would have to check the code where u live. I have see it if there's room with wire nuts. But check your local code to make sure you can
Pigtails will work
The wires are short because someone living there at the time this was done, pissed off the electrician. Wanna bet?
Hello, what’s the name of tool being used? Thanks
multimeter
Nicked wire bro...simple
I would had pig tailed them
I did come across a house like this.
My solution was to ask the home owners wife for of her pube’s. She had some blacks and some greys .
I wired it up and it worked Lolololol the customer was satisfied.