Melted crimps

[goldstar]

Ran into this yesterday during a service upgrade. Kind of scary but I managed to cut the triplex with no incident (Thank God). However, when I crimped the new service wires to the triplex, one of the triplex cables snapped off clean on the line side of the crimp. I'm guessing that the wires got so hot at one time that the aluminum became brittle. Anyone ever experienced this before ? The original service conductors were # 3 copper (should bring me a few pennies at the scrap yard)

 

[infinity]

That looks pretty bad and very old. I'm guessing that water made its' way into the splice and corroded it.

 

[kwired]

Some possibilities are conductor not fully inserted into the barrel before crimping, not the correct connector for the conductor size, both these conditions probably difficult to confirm at this point though.

Also could be incorrect crimping tool used or failure to fully crimp to specifications.

 

[goldstar]

All good possibilities. These crimps were made by the POCO. This used to be a Dr.'s house and his office many years ago. There are several rooms on the 1st fl that were exam rooms and all had sinks in them. This is what the main 100A service location looked like before the upgrade. The outdoor service was done in 1 1/4" EMT with compression fittings and # 3 copper. There is also a barn, greenhouse and a pool on the premises. The 2-car attached garage is coming down and a 4-car garage with 4 hydraulic lifts is going in its place. The barn will also be used as car storage. This new HO is just a few clicks short of Jay Leno about cars. But, he's got a few $$$, so I guess I'll be busy for a while.

I'm not sure what the original or previous owner(s) did regarding electrical work but so far I've found at least 4 Federal Electric panels (2 at the main,and 2 in the garage. At first glance it looks like the barn and pool are fed from the existing garage. I'll find out when we tear down the garage. The saga continues.................