Troubleshooting story

Recently I've had the opportunity to do some troubleshooting mysteries. One of these was a receptacle (plug) that wasn't working. In this case it was an outdoor GFI plug. Of course, GFIs can go bad and it's always a good place to start looking. I pulled out the receptacle and found that there wasn't any power in the box. This meant that I had to find out the path of the circuit the receptacle was on. My circuit tracer only works where there is power so the only thing I could do is start trying to guess the path of the circuit and opening each box to check continuity with my dead GFI. I opened several boxes that seemed likely candidates but could not find the correct one. I was on the verge of opening a three gang switchbox that seemed unlikely but I was running out of places to look when I finally spotted a previously unseen receptacle high in the corner of the covered porch. As soon as I opened this one I spotted the loose wire I had been looking for. I reattached the wires correctly and checked my GFI. Everything was working again.

Another time there was a kitchen light above a sink that had previously worked but was no longer working. This time there were some unusual voltage readings. My meter was reading 50v where it should have read 120v. I know from experience that readings like this often indicate a loose or missing neutral (grounded conductor). Judging by the age of the building and the wiring as I began opening the nearest boxes to trace out the circuit path I suspected that some creative wiring accounted for what I was looking into. Again, I opened and traced out every possible plug and switch in the kitchen and out into the living room. I just could not find the culprit. As I started to look into the possibility that the offending wiring was in one of the other kitchen light fixtures I spied a junction box in the ceiling. When I pulled out the wires there it was, a neutral connected to a group of hots, a white wire in the wrong place. Once I corrected the wiring and put everything back in its place the light, and everything else worked.

When something doesn't work like it's supposed to there are usually clues to what is causing it but it also takes persistence and knowledge not just of what is wrong but also the right way to fix it.