I went to a customer's house yesterday. Apparently they had lost power to their detached garage.
After checking the panel and making sure there was power leaving the house, I tried to open the conduit body to check for power.
You've seen conduit bodies. They look like an "L" and if they open on the back, we're call them LBs. LRs and LLs open on the right and left respectively.
The LBs on the house and the garage both had corroded screws so I couldn't get them open. I could, however, see the writers going into the ground.
The wires in neither location were protected. They were an old underground feeder (UF) type wire. And I mean they were old.
Leaving the LB at the house, the wires didn't look bad but at the garage... The photo up top tells that story.
I went back today with an accomplice. He started digging a trench while I disconnected everything.
He found the original wire and I saw what the problem actually was. The insulation had deteriorated and the wire started arcing underground.
The top wire is bare. It was the neutral. The bottom wire is broken and discolored from arcing. It was the hot wire.
This is a better shot.
Inside the garage, I found this little gem.
You cannot make spices in a conduit body. They are meant to be pull points and nothing else.
The day after tomorrow I should go back to finish up. I've got to put some PVC pipe in the ground and pull new wire.
Hopefully it will take longer to fill the trench back up than it will to pull the wire and reconnect it.
Photos by me.
