Wiring question

[John(videodoc)]

Out of the blue, i had a circut breaker pop in my garage. I did the wiring in the garage, so i know which plugs are to the circut breaker. What is the fastest way to check what is bad. I did a quick continuity check in a couple of the plugs in teh circut, the neutral and hot are in contact (grounded out) somewhere in the in the circut.

Should i test circut breaker first?

1. How do i test circut breaker?

2. Then i am guessing i will have to remove each plug one by one, to test?

Everything was fine one day and then the next, BAM......
John

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

My suggestion is to remove the wire form the circuit breaker and connect an ohm meter from the hot wire to th e ground and then one at a time remove the screws holding the receptacles into the wall. the most likely cause is that one of the wires is pinched in the receptacle box.

[George Willer]

Start near the center of the circuit by disconnecting the outlet. Go the direction the answer leads you.

[Jim Becker]

Just to state the obvious, before going any farther, make sure everything is unplugged from all outlets on the circuit. Something switched on on a dead circuit will cause it to test as shorted. Some of the newer electronics act like they are on even when they are off.

[flag]

Is it just receptacles that are to the circut breaker...if yes, unplugged from all outlets as JB said, go to the 1st outlet in the circuit wired from breaker and disconnect all wires and attempt to reset breaker, if wont reset; the neutral/hot are still grounded out, its from that outlet to breaker.
Disconnect wires from breaker and ohm it out if you like but if you have some romex left over then simply string across floor from breaker to 1st outlet and make the joint up, if that works then you will have to replace those existing wires

2. If it resets turn off breaker, reconnect 1st outlet and got to the next one and disconnect it and so on until it trips, then you know the problem is the between the two outlets or that outlet is bad!

3. If switches and lights are involves, you do same as above but you must go from breaker towards end of the line.

[John(videodoc)]

Start near the center of the circuit by disconnecting the outlet. Go the direction the answer leads you.

Thats what i did, in combination with what flag stated, and sure enough, it was the middle the one that was bad. A section of "hot wire" was grounded in the wall. I cut away the finished drywall and in that area, the wiring was TIGHT around a couple of electrical boxes. Couldnt see the exact cause. Put a jumper wire (hot) in circut, and verified that was the problem. No just to fish new wire, and patch the drywall and its all fixed.

THANKS
John