mc cable with aluminum ground

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John120/240

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There has been much dissucission at our shop about the proper termination of the ground wire. Some say cut off the aluminum ground before it enters the connector and the cable jacket is your ground path. Others suggest that you terminate the aluminum ground inside the box but we do not have copper to aluminum wire nuts to attach to the boxes pig tail.
 
1793 said:
At step two instead of cutting, I make a few wraps around the outside of the cable.
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I hope you are only talking about AC cable and not the MCI-A (MCap) type cable. In wrapping this larger aluminum conductor around the sheath, you could inadvertently cause damage to the sheath when the connector clamp is tightened down, or if using a snap-in product, you will cause the fitting not to meet the mechanical or electrical specifications.

In the case of the MCI-A cable, follow the manufacturer's instructions.
 
LJSMITH1 said:
I hope you are only talking about AC cable and not the MCI-A (MCap) type cable. In wrapping this larger aluminum conductor around the sheath, you could inadvertently cause damage to the sheath when the connector clamp is tightened down, or if using a snap-in product, you will cause the fitting not to meet the mechanical or electrical specifications.

In the case of the MCI-A cable, follow the manufacturer's instructions.
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I have not as of late run any MCI-A (MCap). I run into this with the older armor cables, BX. What I wrap is a very thin, flat something - I would not even call it a "wire". :)
 
*whew*...I thought you were talking about type MC.

BX is now referred to as Type AC, and has the thin bond conductor. Wrapping that on the outside won't have any impact to the fitting or performance.:cool:
 
LJSMITH1 said:
*whew*...I thought you were talking about type MC.

BX is now referred to as Type AC, and has the thin bond conductor. Wrapping that on the outside won't have any impact to the fitting or performance.:cool:
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Now that would be a task in itself. I have been known to do some wild things but that is not one of them.:grin:

Old habits and or terms are hard to break.
 
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Since the aluminum bond wire in MCAP is #10 I would make the assumption that he's asking about that and not AC cable. But you know what can happen when you assume. :roll:
 
The last time I installed this cable it came with explicit instructions that you could OR could not cut the bond wire flush. I would think that if you wanted to tail the #10 al you must use AL/CU rated wirenuts to the box with a cu groundtail. Just a higher quality job yet not required for minimum standards.
 
quogueelectric said:
The last time I installed this cable it came with explicit instructions that you could OR could not cut the bond wire flush. I would think that if you wanted to tail the #10 al you must use AL/CU rated wirenuts to the box with a cu groundtail. Just a higher quality job yet not required for minimum standards.
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IMO, the AL/CU is for use on all AL or all CU conductors, not for mixing the two together.
 
benaround said:
IMO, the AL/CU is for use on all AL or all CU conductors, not for mixing the two together.
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Most al rated wirenuts are ONLY rated for AL/CU that I know of with exception of the KIng industries Alumicon connector which is rated AL/AL and not cheap . So now you of course can easily somehow add 1 cu conductor to make the splice compliant. You dont want to be the one the insurance co hangs the latex donut on when it comes to court time. You must pay attention to the listing of the splice connector.
 
quogueelectric said:
Most al rated wirenuts are ONLY rated for AL/CU that I know of with exception of the KIng industries Alumicon connector which is rated AL/AL and not cheap . So now you of course can easily somehow add 1 cu conductor to make the splice compliant. You dont want to be the one the insurance co hangs the latex donut on when it comes to court time. You must pay attention to the listing of the splice connector.
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If you are trying to tell me that you can put 1 cu. wire and 1 al. wire under the same

wirenut, I'm not buying it.
 
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