replacing light switches

Nailpounder

I have a box in the kitchen that has 4 switches in it. two of them were bad so I replaced them all.
The old ones did not have a ground wire running to them, so I added one, and grounded them to the box. Is this ok?

Also, before hooking up the ground wire, I turned the breaker on to see if all lights worked, all was good. Then I connected the ground, and stuffed everything back in the box, and tried all switches again. One of them popped and flashed, and blew the breaker when I turned it on. I then turned everything off, reset the breaker, and tried again. It worked about 5 minutes, popped/flashed and blew the breaker again.

I then pulled the switch out of the box moved some wire around and put it back in, and now it seems to be fine. Everything works.

My Questions are...What caused that pop/flash? And, Do I need to be worried about fire in my walls once I leave for work?

Thanks

jbfan

The pop and flash was the ground wire hitting a hot wire.
When you took the switch out and moved it around, you broke the connection between the hot and ground.
If it has not tripped agin, you should be fine.

__________________
Yes I am a Pirate, 200 years too late. "Jimmy Buffett"

Nailpounder

Thanks, That is what my dad said, but he is kind of a hack sometimes.
I wanted to hear it from someone else too.
Thanks again