New receptacle sparked and tripped circuit


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Old 06-14-17, 09:50 PM
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New receptacle sparked and tripped circuit

Today I switched out an receptacle and when I turned the power back on and checked the outlet with my receptacle tester, everything was good. I switched out another receptacle with no issues that is on the same circuit and then checked both of the receptacles again. This time when I tested the first receptacle, a spark flew and the circuit was tripped. I am not positive, but I think I tested the second outlet on that receptacle this time.

You can see that the second hot terminal is the one that is burnt. Also, the I took a picture of the original receptacle along with the new one. The other odd thing is that the original receptacle had the hot wire attached with a wire nut and an extra inch of wire, even though there is plenty of wire in the box.

Any thoughts about what happened and what needs to be done?

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Old 06-14-17, 10:00 PM
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I'm not seeing any neutrals. I'm only seeing two wires.
 
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Old 06-14-17, 10:52 PM
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Is the yellow wire not the neutral? The wires are coming through old pipe so the outlet is ground to the box, so there are only two wires coming to the receptacle.
 
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Old 06-14-17, 11:57 PM
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Actually yellow is a hot. The "yellow" may be off white. If it is really white that is discolored then you are fine.

Are you saying the breaker tripped? Did you turn the breaker all the way off then back on?

Are there splices in the box. With only two wires on the receptacle for that box to feed another box there has to be splices in the box. Have you checked those?
 
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Old 06-15-17, 08:02 AM
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Yes, the breaker tripped once I tested the receptacle the second time. There are splices in the box, which everything is fine and I didn't need to touch. All I did is replace an old receptacle with a new one, which I have done on nearly every outlet in the house with no issues. For some reason this time it sparked. So I am not sure what would have been different from the first receptacle to the second.
 
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Old 06-15-17, 10:55 AM
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I'm a bit confused. Does it work now?
There are splices in the box
Did you separate the splices and check them or just look? Are they done with wire nuts or tape?
 
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Old 06-15-17, 11:26 AM
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I actually solved it. A terminal hit the metal box when I was testing it and since that was the ground, it tripped the breaker. I added more electrical tape and made sure everything was secure and everything is back to working correctly. Thanks.
 
 

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