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GFI protection on short

I think I know the answer to this one, but I'd like a second opinion. I have a piece of 14-2 w/G romex feeding from a wall switch to a ceiling fixture in a newly remodeled bathroom. The romex has a short from the neutral to the ground conductor. The circuit is downstream from a GFI outlet. The short appears to be somewhere inside the wall, probably damaged by a staple, and I would rather not tear out the newly finished drywall to try to get at it. If I disconnect the ground conductor at the switch end, the GFI holds and the light works. If I connect the ground at the switch, to the other grounds, the GFI trips. I know, to be 100% up to code I should replace the cable to the fixture. Realistically speaking, how unsafe is it? The metal parts of the fixture are not easily accessible to a person using the bathroom facilities. There is infinite resistance, as measured with an ohmmeter, between the hot and neutral conductors in the cable in question. The entire circuit is protected by an appropriately sized breaker.

Reply to
Tom Lager
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Reply to
Phil Munro

I agree, you really dont want the ground wire conducting non-fault current like the neutral does.. If you are lucky enough to have attic space or crawl space above the switch and the light fixture, running a new wire may be possible without tearing out some sheetrock. But I would double check the wiring in the light fixture and the switch box before I went through a lot of trouble. Make sure its not a wiring screwup first. I have seen the bare ground wire in a box get against another conductor whose wire nut wasnt covering the bare copper completly. Completly disconnecting the suspected romex on both ends and ohming them out with a good meter to confirm a bad cable run would be the last step I would do before re-running a new wire.

Reply to
Skenny

Well, the *one* thing I would suggest, is check the connections at the switch and ceiling fan first. If someone mis-wired it and connected a ground to a 'hot' or neutral when mounting the ceiling fan, you could get the same symptoms.

And it would be easy to fix.

daestrom

Reply to
daestrom

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