Did you measure the output of the circuit breaker? If you are getting 0 volts then move the circuit breaker. With only one hot feeding the panel half the slots are not going to have power. I can't tell from the picture if you are using a good one or not.
Or you could move the panel hot feed to the other lug so the breaker can stay where it is not have to punch another slot out from the panel face.

 

Thanks for your reply!


The Black hot feed comes down through the top of the new circuit box, and connects to a large screw lug at the upper right of the circuit breaker, the other available large screw lug is on the unused left slot to the left of the breaker I installed. I used that slot on the right side because that slot was already knocked-out in the (uninstalled in picture) front cover plate, and I didn't want to open the left one and leave an unused slot open in the front plate.



With the breaker OFF, I get 119V between lower breaker output wire and the neutral buss, and around 2.54V and slowly leaking down, between breaker output and ground - and still 123V between neutral and ground.

Thank You!
-Mark

 

There are 3 lugs in a meter - Hot 120v - Neutral/ground - Hot 120v. If you connected the black to the left meter lug, and the blue to the right meter lug - then what you though was neutral was actually the other 120 volt meter lug and you put 240 volts to the pump.

 

What's that red wire doing connected to ground?

 

Well, seems it's energizing the ground :surprise:

OP, You need to shut this down, and learn how to do a 240V connection.
From your description, you wired one leg of the hot to ground (which is why your not seeing a potential to ground.)

My guess is that the RED wire is HOT . Be careful when you move it to the other lug on your sub panel.

 

You should not be measuring 123 volts neutral to ground.
What is the voltage between the blue and the black?

You are using very non code colours for your wires. Neutral should white or grey, not blue. Ground should be green or bare, not red.

 

I connected my black hot feed to the left bottom leg, the neutral feed to the right bottom leg, and the ground to the center ground leg. All these connections run under a 1/2" bolt-secured metal clamp in the main meter box, the same lugs that the main house feed wires attach to. When I looked at the existing wiring running to the same lugs I connected to, they had a black wire on the left lug, and a red wire to the right lug, and the (what I thought was) ground wire connected to the center ground lug - these wires exit through the right side of the meter box and feed power to the remote shed.

The left and right lugs in the meter box are both hot. The center lug is the neutral, which gets bonded to ground.



So I'm thinking you have 240V wired to your pump through a single pole breaker. Is the pump a 120V or 240V pump?



Does the meter have dual lugs? Or did you place both the wires for your main panel and the new pump panel under one set of lugs?



Do you have any photos of how you wired things in the meter box before closing it back up?

 

Mark...................you still with us?

 

Thank You! The local little hardware store had no green for ground, or white for neutral, in that wire gauge - so I opted for the chromatic opposite of green (which is red) for my ground, and I used blue for neutral in place of white (super-white laundry uses "bluing", I remember from my long-deceased Grandmother)-- SORRY for my Polack color scheme!! Had to use what I could get... Maybe I better tag them for future techs' ID... PLEASE ACCEPT MY HUMBLE APOLOGIES FOR BEING A DUMMY!!

 

SORRY for my absence - been in bed all day with a 24-hour bug... Just taking the pics this morning had me wiped out all day...

Just now got up to eat & then upchucked my banana - whew, feeling a little better but also a little bewildered now. ENJOY your youth and health while you have it - rof, lol.



THANKS for all the respondents!!!
Will give this another shot in the morning when I feel better,

I seem to be on the mend now.

 

Sorry, I was too dumb to think to take pics of my botched install.
I could cut the little wire lock thingy the electric Co. guy put back on there,
and I think I could remove that meter face CAREFULLY as I watched him do twice now.


The setup looks vaguely like a 5-spot on a dice - two lugs on top, one in the middle, and two on the bottom. The wire from the pole (if I remember correctly) hooks to the top two, and its thick braided metal shield hooks up to the middle, then the (I presume they are the) big thick wires feeding the house interior panel hook up to the bottom two lugs as well as a (I presume it's a) ground the center one.

 

Do not pull the meter on your own.There is serious risk of arc flash injury if something goes wrong. The wires feeding the meter base are not fused. They will just keep arcing and burning if something goes wrong.

 

Please feel free to FLAME ME for my stupidity -
just trying to save my absentee owner Son from paying large for a proper electrician,
it SEEMED like an easy basic job until I couldn't locate any meter box legend online DOH!!


I do have some experience remodeling and rewiring a home bathroom, and some minor repair work on guitars and amps. JUST ENOUGH KNOWLEDGE TO BE DANGEROUS - THANKS FOR BEING HERE FOR ME, GUYS!!!

 

THANK YOU!! I WILL DO AS YOU SAY AND NOT MONKEY WITH IT!
Besides, when the guy came out a month ago for a different disconnect, he saw I had removed the lock-tag for a simple no-touch look-see, and told me that was a BIG NO-NO. I do realise I could join The Honeymooners' Alice Kramden up on the Moon if I get zapped... Will wait for the company to get my cutoff scheduled, hoping to get proper definition here by then - Thank You!

 

If you can't get the proper coloured wire at least buy some coloured electrical tape tape up the wires with the proper colour.

 

While you are awaiting your utility to schedule another cut-off you probably have a problem. It certainly sounds like you have connected the circuit across 240v. Assuming that your septic pump is 120v, you may have fried it unless it has some kind of repairable internal protection, so your septic system won't work and once the pump chamber is full it will probably back up into the house.
The black leg is protected by the breaker (hopefully 'off' until this gets sorted out) but the blue leg remains hot and unprotected from all of the current that your utility has to offer.

 

Thank You for that valuable advice! Will do.

 

I feel pretty stupid, now that I recall how all the connections are made inside my main circuit panel. I believe I should have put both the neutral and the ground wires together at the ground attachment - the center lug - under the electric meter? The power company is coming out today for another temporary disconnect, I will ask the electric man at that time. THANK YOU for your help and input!!

 

- gulp - I hope it has some protection, but I am afraid Murphy's Law has a way of following me around during my ignorant travails... Will post update after electric man comes today for another temporary disconnect - Thank You!!

 

In the mean time, I will disconnect it and hoist it out of the well to check its condition.

 

- END OF THREAD, PLEASE CLOSE -

Well, as they say, God protects drunks and fools...
What ignorant wiring should have resulted in a fried pump, was disallowed from damaging it by my ignorant wiring at the terminal end. Upon cramming my connections into the smaller of two waterproof boxes I bought, I inadvertently pulled-loose the neutral connection, effectively rendering the circuit open. I asked the electric man to confirm my guess that the neutral and ground connections at the main meter box should be attached to the same ground lug, and he concurred. When I pulled the pump out of the well to check its condition, and then opened my watertight junction, I discovered what looked like might have been a neutral wire pulled loose from its slippery connection under a wire nut, to its hard straight solid copper feed. I reattached the neutral and everything works fine - fried pump was averted by my own amateurish ignorance - and God's help. Murphy's Law be damned this time!!

I will use the larger box so everything is not crammed together inside it.



THANKS TO ALL who delivered valuable experienced input to my thread!


- END OF THREAD, PLEASE CLOSE -

 

- END OF THREAD, PLEASE CLOSE -
Well, as they say, God protects drunks and fools...

Maybe that's why God had me watching this thread.
Trust me, you still need protecting !

I asked the electric man to confirm my guess that the neutral and ground connections at the main meter box should be attached to the same ground lug, and he concurred.

There should be a bonding screw in that panel. You need to make sure it is in fact there . Not sure if that's what the 'electric man' did.

When I pulled the pump out of the well to check its condition, and then opened my watertight junction, I discovered what looked like might have been a neutral wire pulled loose from its slippery connection under a wire nut, to its hard straight solid copper feed. I reattached the neutral and everything works fine - fried pump was averted by my own amateurish ignorance - and God's help. Murphy's Law be damned this time!!

Since you didn't fry the pump, I'll assume that it is a 240V pump.

Unless the 'electric man' moved the 'blue' hot conductor from the neutral bar, the next person to add something to that panel will have a phase to phase short.

If it is in fact a 240V motor, it should be fed with a 2 pole breaker.
As it is now (from what I have gathered), You have no way of shutting one of the poles off in case of maintenance on the motor.

 

Is this circuit GFCI protected?

 

the pump works on 120V, it never had 240V running to it

 

Either the 'electric man' fixed something before you fixed your neutral splice, or you really fugged up the wiring at the meter.

Either way, it's working, you're happy ... I'm outta here.

Good luck.

 

You have so many code violations.
You can not have 2 wires under one lug.
You can bond the neutral and ground inside the panel.
A utility lineman is not an electrician, and they follow different rules.

You should have found a way to come out of the main panel to feed the pump.

 

the lineman is a journeyman electrician, he watched me hook it up


out here in rural Arkansas - local City Hall told me there are no codes - lol


the setup works fine


congrats on your big fish caught - what a man!


hope you don't snag your own britches...

 

No need to get snarky!
Codes are there for a reason. Just because he is a journeyman electrician doesn't mean he knows codes.
Do whatever you like, it is your issue!

 

fish, or cut bait...