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Breaker tripping when ground connected

 
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konnections



Joined: 27 Dec 2007
Posts: 1
Location: Gilroy, CA
PostPosted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 2:11 am    Post subject: Breaker tripping when ground connected Reply with quote
We have a circuit that branches to about 150' of directy bury 12-2 cable which then branches to a mailbox light and entry wall light. The breaker tripped, and immediately trips again when I try and reset it. I disconnected the underground branch at the junction box, and it will reset fine. I tried to isolate which branch had the problem, and discovered that when I connect just all the hot and neutral wires, the breaker does not trip, but when I connect the bare ground wires, the breaker trips. This doesn't make sense to me...I can understand the hot tripping the breaker if there was a short to ground, but not the grounds...any ideas on how to trouble shoot this and locate the problem?
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b
Moderator


Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 331
Location: michigan
PostPosted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 12:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Did you check the lights to make sure the ground was not in contact with the hot there? Somewhere there must be a connection that shorts the circuit between hot and ground... and since the line checks before your devices that would be the next place I would look.
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