Another electrical question

[Hotchef181818]

Just did some reading about phantom voltage and it showing up in underground wiring that is run through conduit. Any sense to that? Or should I just stay the course and look for the box in the am to see if there is a clear answer ?

[newracer]

Doesn't your last picture show 120v on the switch when it is on? If so the problem is beyond the switch as Sparky already said.

[Hotchef181818]

Doesn't your last picture show 120v on the switch when it is on? If so the problem is beyond the switch as Sparky already said.

Yep, confusing stuff for me. I was looking at this pic

[Great-Kazoo]

Pull all of it and start fresh. You're spending more time troubleshooting it than having it work. Been there before. Who knows how or what they did in those pipes.

[Wulf202]

It's probably something like water in the j box for the light. The last time I rewired a pool light the cord that came with it was 25' or so.

If you've got an air compressor sometimes you can have someone use a blowgun in the conduit and listen for the air coming out.

Maybe its a dumb question but are you getting power to the bulb socket and have you verified the bulb is good? Sometimes those sockets corrode

[Hotchef181818]

It's probably something like water in the j box for the light. The last time I rewired a pool light the cord that came with it was 25' or so.

If you've got an air compressor sometimes you can have someone use a blowgun in the conduit and listen for the air coming out.

Great idea with the compressor, the landscaping is pretty thick so that may do the trick. Great idea!

[Hotchef181818]

Bulb has been checked and works, it's new as well but I did check it. I think I checked power at the socket but can't remember. I'll do that today as well.

[thvigil11]

I'm still thinking your problem is the 3 wire going out to the bulb. The black and red are sharing a common. At some point that black needs to be splitting off to your power source and the red should be going to the bulb. So somewhere that common (white) is getting split to go with both wires. There should be a J box wherever that split is. (or it splits at the bulb junction). My money is on there being an issue there at that junction (corrosion). Usually buried wire in conduit is fairly stable (unless someone has been digging)

[Sparky]

Yep, confusing stuff for me. I was looking at this pic

Your getting weird voltages in this pic because you are not using your meter correctly.

[MED]

It is very difficult to distinguish the line/load on this connection. First, you need to know which lines are hot and which ones are not. You have two separate black, white, and green wire leads coming from each conduit. Check to see if either or both are hot by connecting your meter to the black and white wires. Your whites being the neutral; you will need to remove the jumper to do this with the switches in the off position. Also, I would check the red and a white to verify if it is hot or cold. If one lead is cold and the other is hot, then the wire nut connecting the two whites is good. I think this was mentioned, but you should have a pig tail from the green at the wire nut to the bottom connections on the switches.


This is completely a guess since I am not there doing the testing, but I would think that the conduit on the right is the hot line. If the right switch is turned on, the jumper supplies power to the black wire on the left and provides power to one of the sets of lights. If the left switch is turned on, the red wire is made hot and provides power to the other sets of lights. If the switches are good, your break is farther down the line. However, I would test this by doing what I suggested above.