Tom M King
08-25-2023, 2:04 PM
The lighting circuit in the mechanic shop has had a strange switch eating problem. About a year ago, the lights wouldn't work. I took the cover plate off the switches, and first try was a jumper wire across the lugs on the light switch. Lights came on, so I changed the switch, and it lasted about another year. Same thing again, jumper made lights work, changed to switch to just one I had. That one lasted about a week.
This time, when I tried the jumper, there was nothing. Pulled the switches out of the box, tested with multimeter....nothing. Took wire nut off hot wire in the box, checked, still nothing. I was Really not wanting to have to pull another wire thinking one possibility was a staple into one of the old wires too tight.
I pulled the cover off the breaker panel. Lug on breaker to that circuit showed nothing. Switched the breaker handle back and forth several times, and it became hot again and the lights worked.
That bad breaker must have caused arcing somewhere that burned up those switches. I had replacement breakers, so put a new one in, and it turned out to be an easy fix.
Intermittent problems are often hard to find, especially when one causes another fault in the system. I got lucky this time. Anyway, there are now all new switches in that circuit too.
This time, when I tried the jumper, there was nothing. Pulled the switches out of the box, tested with multimeter....nothing. Took wire nut off hot wire in the box, checked, still nothing. I was Really not wanting to have to pull another wire thinking one possibility was a staple into one of the old wires too tight.
I pulled the cover off the breaker panel. Lug on breaker to that circuit showed nothing. Switched the breaker handle back and forth several times, and it became hot again and the lights worked.
That bad breaker must have caused arcing somewhere that burned up those switches. I had replacement breakers, so put a new one in, and it turned out to be an easy fix.
Intermittent problems are often hard to find, especially when one causes another fault in the system. I got lucky this time. Anyway, there are now all new switches in that circuit too.