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enireh

Senior Member
Location
Canyon Lake,TX
checking an underground line for a short, I traced it to the end. Twenty feet away is the last outlet and when disconnected, the breaker will hold. I checked continuity on that last twenty feet and nothing, but when I reconnected the last twenty feet to the circuit it would ring like I had a short
 
enireh said:
checking an underground line for a short, I traced it to the end. Twenty feet away is the last outlet and when disconnected, the breaker will hold. I checked continuity on that last twenty feet and nothing, but when I reconnected the last twenty feet to the circuit it would ring like I had a short
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Did you reconnect the old outlet or connect to a new one?
 
You need to do more troubleshooting to isolate the problem, try to break it up into smaller pieces :

Disconnect the outlet and test wiring.
Check for continuity and verify isolation from EGC on hot and neutral.
If you have access to one, use a tdr to find the fault distance. If you are familiar with them, you can even see what type of fault there is (short impedance, open, etc.)

I hope this helps
 
short

the problem is 330' from the panel there is nothing on the end and 30' before that is an outlet after that there is nothing and it is not touching anything
 
ptonsparky said:
A fault locator will find the fault and tell you where to dig but for 20' it may be cheaper to replace that section
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You must work at similar places that I work at:) May not be cheaper but replacement usually keeps it from turning into coming back a short time later to fix another spot that never got exposed the first time around. It also gets replaced with raceway instead of direct burial conductors/cables, and if they should go bad you pull them instead of excavating them.
 
cowboyjwc said:
I must be missing something. How is there nothing on the end?
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I think, he has no load or maybe even no device at the end but still has a fault somewhere in that last 30 feet, but doesn't detect continuity in that segment with a continuity tester.
 
kwired said:
I think, he has no load or maybe even no device at the end but still has a fault somewhere in that last 30 feet, but doesn't detect continuity in that segment with a continuity tester.
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I guess I understand, but then my question would be what difference does it make? Just delete that end of the run. Didn't he say there's a device somewhere between the panel and the short? Just terminate it there.
 
cowboyjwc said:
I guess I understand, but then my question would be what difference does it make? Just delete that end of the run. Didn't he say there's a device somewhere between the panel and the short? Just terminate it there.
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Intentionally removed the load or device temporarily for testing? If so still needs to repair the section that appears to have a fault in it.
 
enireh said:
the problem is 330' from the panel there is nothing on the end and 30' before that is an outlet after that there is nothing and it is not touching anything
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This is what he said. 30' before the end is an outlet and then there is nothing. So if there's nothing, what's it for?
 
cowboyjwc said:
This is what he said. 30' before the end is an outlet and then there is nothing. So if there's nothing, what's it for?
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Conversational piece? I know it was a little hard to follow the description of what was going on and is likely not everyone has the same picture in their mind.
 
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