[SEL] OT! Electrical troubleshoting

[Bob Willman]

	I assumed that you were using a toner to follow the signal from the
wire underground. That signal tracing device is easily fooled by high
resistance connections. You must isolate the wires completely at both ends
but even then if the wires are close together for any distance the tone will
show up on the adjacent conductors. If you get the pick-up close to the
individual wires (underground in your case) you may be able to tell when the
signal is lost - it will be louder near that wire. Sounds like a good time
to lay new wires in plastic conduit.


Bob Willman
The Eagle's Anvil
WB8NQW
Bowling Green, Ohio

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are
willing to work and give to those who would not.

Thomas Jefferson
-----Original Message-----
From: sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com
[mailto:sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com] On Behalf Of Elden
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2010 2:44 PM
To: The SEL email discussion list
Subject: Re: [SEL] OT! Electrical troubleshoting

Curt:

What I'd do would be to either connect all three conductors together at the
load end or ground all three (whichever works best).

When the signal generator is connected between the white (the good wire) and
the black (the bad one) and a relatively low frequency signal is injected,
the signal level should decrease sharply at the point of the break.

In my experience, what I've found in such situations is that either the
cable got nicked and corrosion has made the conductor fail -OR- some
"scientist" spliced the cable using wire nuts!

I would, however, suggest that you simply uproot the entire old cable and
replace it with something more substantial.

Take care - Elden
http://www.oldengine.org/members/durand

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com
> [mailto:sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com]On Behalf Of 
> curt at rustyiron.com
> Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2010 8:19 AM
> To: The SEL email discussion list
> Subject: [SEL] OT! Electrical troubleshoting
>
>
> Hey guys and gals,
> Since the SEL is a vast pool of knowledge to draw from, I need help 
> with troubleshooting an underground wire at the new place.
> From the house is a
> 12 ga wire that goes underground a couple of hundred feet to feed a 
> couple of pole lights. This is that gray outdoor wire.
> The lights quit working and after some troubleshooting was surprised 
> to learn the wire itself is bad.
.................snip................

_______________________________________________
SEL mailing list
SEL at lists.stationary-engine.com
http://www.stationary-engine.com/mailman/listinfo/sel