Customer wanted two lamp post light fixtures replaced but complained they weren't working right. So as I was diagnosing I found one had 120 voltage (though light was dimmer and flickering) and the other didn't (about 12 volts). The hot in the home wall switch carried the 120 volts so I knew the power going from there into the lamp posts was fine. But I suspected faulty pigtail wiring inside the posts.
After removing the two post light fixtures and exposing the wiring, sure enough the pigtail from the power and supplying electricity to the other post was totally fried! In fact, there was a lot of corrosion on all the wires but one of the neutrals had barely the copper left as shown in the pic!
The bulb adapter was totally corroded and in fact just barely hanging in there so on especially one of them so I knew this had caused the extreme high resistance that led to the neutral frying.
I followed all the wires back from the ends assuring I had good wire connections and cleaned up all the exposed tarnished wires as well. I got both lights to work great.
I don't know how long they've had these post lights but it seems a long time to cause the erosion.
I am wondering if I should have put on some dielectric grease on the connections when wiring. I do that a lot on cars but wondering if and how it will effect outdoor wiring if I had done that.
After removing the two post light fixtures and exposing the wiring, sure enough the pigtail from the power and supplying electricity to the other post was totally fried! In fact, there was a lot of corrosion on all the wires but one of the neutrals had barely the copper left as shown in the pic!
The bulb adapter was totally corroded and in fact just barely hanging in there so on especially one of them so I knew this had caused the extreme high resistance that led to the neutral frying.
I followed all the wires back from the ends assuring I had good wire connections and cleaned up all the exposed tarnished wires as well. I got both lights to work great.
I don't know how long they've had these post lights but it seems a long time to cause the erosion.
I am wondering if I should have put on some dielectric grease on the connections when wiring. I do that a lot on cars but wondering if and how it will effect outdoor wiring if I had done that.
