Spent 3 hours looking for a ground fault that was just a loose screw on a junction box cover

My apprentice kept saying it had to be a bad breaker, but I finally went back to basics and found the cover screw was barely touching the box inside. Has anyone else had a simple fix hide behind hours of overthinking?

2 comments

2 Comments

reese8626d ago

Buddy of mine had a similar thing with a bathroom fan that kept tripping the GFCI. He swapped the breaker, checked every wire in the ceiling, tore the fan apart - whole day shot. Turned out the mounting bracket screw was just barely touching the hot wire inside the junction box. He was so mad he almost threw his meter across the garage. Simple stuff gets overlooked because you're staring at the big picture and forget the little things.

hannah_williams26d ago

That screw trick is honestly one of the most maddening things to track down. You check every major component and it's always some tiny thing you'd never think to look for. Ever since I heard a story like that I started checking all the box hardware first before tearing anything else apart.