open ground question

mikedabike64

my test to read open ground but instead of 2 bright yellow so I have 1 bright yellow and 1 very very dim yellow
reading hot to neutral gives me 120
reading hot to ground gives me 26?
that should read 120
reading neutral to ground I have 9 volts?
that should read 0
at the breaker box the wires
read 1 black hot 1 Red Hot 1 neutral with no ground
but in the gang box I have
1 black 1 white and 1 ground
somewhere in between the breaker box and the gang box somebody spliced something
initially I thought it was just the receptacles and I replaced 3 of them

also at the breaker box the black wire and the red wire are on 2 different breakers but both on the same side the neutral is where it should be on the neutral bus,
I just don't understand how you start out at the beginning with 1 type of wire an end up with a different type of wire but at the end something different I wish I could follow the ground from the gang box to see where it ends because it does not make it back to the breaker box that's for sure
Thanks for any input. Mike H

Stubbie

You have what is called a multiwire branch circuit with shared neutral. If the cable entering the circuit breaker panel that has the red,black and white wire but no equipment ground wire (bare) then that is your problem.
The only other possibility would be if the wires are in metal conduit which could act as your ground.

Somewhere on the circuit is a junction box (hopefully accessible) where they split the mwbc into two 120 volt branch circuits. In that junction box is where the ground is open because there wasn't a ground wire in the red,black and white cable to continue the circuit back to the breaker panel.

__________________
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Stubbie

mikedabike64

okay thank you very much I will try and track that junction box down,

mikedabike64

Something tells me that jbox is deep inbetween floors, I will check thanks again.

Hardway

"mwbc that splits into two 120 volt branch circuits."
I know what a mwbc is and how it is wired.
I don't understand the benifit of it? Save some wire?

Kyle_in_rure

Bingo!
Another advantage I see is having more space on the neutral bar.....but MWBCs can be problematic if the neutral connection were to mess up.