We have a 12-2 UF cable going underground 20 feet to a driveway lamp post. After some spring flower digging was done in the yard, the GFCI breaker for the circuit began tripping. I isolated the underground wire by disconnecting the white and black wires at the lamp post and also in the junction box in the crawl space where the UF feeder wire exits the house. A multimeter gave a continuity reading of about 60 K-ohm from black to the ground wire and white to ground, which I assume indicates a ground fault. I dug down to the UF wire where the yard digging had taken place, and a section of wire was found to have several significant nicks. I cut out that section of wire. At that point I expected there to be zero continuity in the remaining underground wire going back to the house. However, now the reading from black to ground and white to ground is 11 M-ohm. There is zero continuity from white to black. My question: Is this amount of continuity to ground negligible and/or acceptable and/or to be expected in an underground situation? Or does it indicate another ground fault problem elsewhere in the remaining 19’ of underground wire that must be corrected, i.e., a small ground fault that might not be enough to trip the breaker but still leaks current to ground. Many thanks for your assistance with this perplexing question.
