Wiring 101?

[jsb5717]

New issue. I discovered today that the 2 GFCI outlets in my kitchen island don't have power. Although, that's not entirely accurate. My little 3 prong plug in power analyzer says there's power but an Open Common. This has developed over the past month or so. In the winter I keep a small ceramic heater on the island to keep the freeze out of the trailer. This morning I noticed it wasn't running, even though it was running the last time I checked on it. So recent issue...trailer hasn't moved since October.

I have 4 GFCI outlets. Main one in the bath (not tripped although I popped it off and on a couple times to make sure it's working), one outside by the door, and 2 in the island. Plugged into an island outlet I can push the GFCI test button on the plug in analyzer and it pops the outlet in the bathroom. So I know they're all part of the same run. I pulled them all out of the wall to begin to investigate and can see that one of the island outlets is the end of the run.

Using some longer wire and a multimeter I can see that I have continuity through all four outlets on the black (power) wire and the unshielded ground wire. On the white (common) wire I have continuity to the outside outlet but not to the island. My plug in analyzer also confirms that the outside outlet is fine. So the issue is between the outside outlet and the island outlets. I can see that the outside outlet wiring feeds from behind the basement wall.

I haven't gone so far as to open up the basement wall to see if I can see anything and try to trace wiring. That's next on a nicer day. In the meantime I thought I'd bring it here to see if there are any ideas. I can't imagine that there are any junction boxes buried behind the basement wall or in the belly. But it also seems odd that all of a sudden that one of the wires shielded in a romex bundle would somehow disconnect.

Any insights? Thanks

 

[Viper02]

The outlets you have no power to are "Protected Outlets"... meaning the GFCI in the bathroom protects those outlets downstream from that bathroom GFCI... To fic the issue of the "common wire fault" I would remove each of the protected outlets and look at the wire connections on the backside...

These outlets used in RVs are not wired like those in a house.. They are self contained in a small plastic cover on the backside of each outlet...

Remove the cover and inspect the wire connections that are held in place via spring clip connections. you will find that one of more of those outlets has a White wire ( common) that is either not fully in those spring clips or the insulation on the wire was pierced very well by the spring clips... hence the Loss of common connection

 

[Viper02]

You may find this PDF I put together a while back helpful

 

[jsb5717]

Thanks for thinking it through with me. What you've suggested is the approach I took. Knowing how these outlets are assembled is what prompted me to pull all of them out of the wall and inspect the wires in the blade connectors. I did my multimeter testing wire to wire just in case one of the wires wasn't well connected to a blade connector.

Last night it dawned on me that I had missed another GFCI outlet that's in the storage area. I'll be pulling that one today in hopes of finding a loose connection.

 

[jsb5717]

Found it. Pulling out the outlet in the storage bay yielded the loose wire. I figured it had to be simple...just needed to find it.

 

[SC GT Yellow Jacket]

You may find this PDF I put together a while back helpful

Excellent document Viper02. Everyone should think about this.