Older panel - questions on grounding conductor attachments

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tonype

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All bare-grounding conductors were separated from the cables and attached to the outside of a ca. 1950's to early 1960's (?) panel. None were attached to the interior terminal bar (only the neutrals). What were the reasons for this type of installation? Are there any potential problems? DSCN6104_edited-1.jpg
 
More curiosity question than answers at the moment...
(a) At what point were the grounding conductors separated from the
cables (after the cables entered the loadcenter) ?
(b) Is the loadcenter the service panel ? If not is it fed by a 4 wire
system ?
(c) Are those multiple grounds terminated in one lug ?
 
If it is a service panel is the bonding jumper installed?

If it is s feeder is the cabinet connected to an equipment grounding conductor?

If neither condition is true the wires in question are not grounded anyhow.

I suspect it was not an electrician or a very inexperienced one that initially did this, they were either told or led to believe they could not land these conductors on the neutral bus (which may have been accurate),so this was their solution.
 
For some reason (maybe it was permitted at the time) there are many old houses (50's & 60's) around here that have the EGC"s terminated in this fashion. It was also common in a device box to bring the EGC out through a hole in the box and terminate it on the outside of the box with a screw.
 
infinity said:
For some reason (maybe it was permitted at the time) there are many old houses (50's & 60's) around here that have the EGC"s terminated in this fashion. It was also common in a device box to bring the EGC out through a hole in the box and terminate it on the outside of the box with a screw.
Click to expand...

I don't see a problem with it other than multiple conductors in the lug designed for one, and it just looks bad, why not do same thing but terminate inside the enclosure?

Hopefully this was not a practice on flush boxes.
 
infinity said:
For some reason (maybe it was permitted at the time) there are many old houses (50's & 60's) around here that have the EGC"s terminated in this fashion. It was also common in a device box to bring the EGC out through a hole in the box and terminate it on the outside of the box with a screw.
Click to expand...

I have seen it done here as well. (California)
 
augie47 said:
More curiosity question than answers at the moment...
(a) At what point were the grounding conductors separated from the
cables (after the cables entered the loadcenter) ?
(b) Is the loadcenter the service panel ? If not is it fed by a 4 wire
system ?
(c) Are those multiple grounds terminated in one lug ?
Click to expand...

Hopefully my answers make sense:

(a) Right at the clamp connections into the panel - bare groundings were pulled out and routed around the panel; others continued into the breakers or terminal bar.
(b) Yes - 200-amp main breaker (Murray).
(c) Yes
 
I would think the cable sheath would need to be intact through the connector and into the panel such as required for boxes in 314.17.
Other than that the only problem I see, as others have mentioned, is the number of conductors exceeding the rating of the lug.
If this is the service panel I have no idea why they would not have simply terminated on the neutral or a ground bar, but, from posts, apparently it is not uncommon.
 
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