Neutral and ground to same terminal in panelboard.

[ptonsparky]

Eventually you will not want to use that breaker anyway.

 

[gar]

190602-2333 EDT

Nickhxc4life:

You are not thinking clearly about this problem. And you are not giving us all the information.

Ground and neutral both need to electrically connect together at or near the main panel. That connection is not the origin of your problem.

Get a 50 ft roll of #12 copper Romex. It can rermain coiled. Make sure that none of the wires are connected together at the far end of the coil. The 100 ft loop resistance of #12 copper is about 1.5*100/1000 = 0.15 ohms. But with the wires open, no connection, the loop (not a closed loop) will have a very high impedance.

The resistance of #12 copper is about 0.0015 ohms per foot. Thus, 10 A thru that wire will produce about a 15 mV drop per foot of wire length between voltage test points. This is easily measured with a Fluke 27 meter.

You indicate your Romex goes from the main panel to a junction box that is close by. No information on distance. In the box the wire ends are connected to nothing else, and are insulated by wire nuts on the wire ends from each other and anything else.

The 50 ft roll of new Romex should not trip a good breaker, and there would not be any arcing in the breaker.

Arcing implies current flow that is interrupted.

Something is fishy or incomplete in your description.

.

 

[texie]

Infinity,

My whole question was about neutral and ground going to exact same terminal. Everyone seems to think that that is fine and is not causing the issue

It is a code violation to have the EGC and the neutral in the same hole. However, this has nothing to do with your obvious short circuit. Do you have an ohm VOM and know how to use it? Respectfully, this is pretty basic stuff.

 

[GoldDigger]

There is, however, a real possibility that the low applied voltage of the ohmmeter function of a typical VOM would not break down marginal insulation which would appear as a short circuit when line voltage AC is applied.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

[infinity]

Infinity,

My whole question was about neutral and ground going to exact same terminal. Everyone seems to think that that is fine and is not causing the issue

It's not causing the issue. Disconnect all of the circuit conductors and turn on the breaker, if nothing happens the CB is good. Connect just the hot leg to the CB and ensure that both the neutral and EGC disconnected ends aren't touching anything. Turn on the CB if nothing happens turn it off again and connect either the neutral or EGC to the bus, turn on again. Repeat process until you figure out which conductor is shorted.

 

[mbrooke]

I’ve described it as clear as it can be. It’s a single pole breaker. The conductors from that breaker run to a junction box (no receptacle wires are individually wire nutted inside the box). On the breaker the black hot wire is attached. The neutral and ground wires from the branch circuit are connected together to a single screw on the neutral/ground bus.

Take pics- it will help tremulously.

 

[Dennis Alwon]

I am not sure why this thread went this long without being closed but clearly you are not an electrician and we are not supposed to help with diy projects unless you are an electrician. Thus I am closing this thread.

Call Larry Fine he will get it right