Extension Cord Testing

did you only liven one conductor at a time?
an ohm gauge will tell you which wire is dead..liven that wire only and you will see where the power stops



Tony Wells said:
RJ, you may be onto something. I can short all three conductors together on one end and grab an old power transformer from some of my old tube gear and use the plate voltage to arc this open spot. Wherever it is, I don't care if it burns the jacket, it's getting cut there anyway.

Toolmaster, we have discussed that option and having tried it, it doesn't help. But we have brought up some variations that may. So I will have a few different things to try when I drag it back out.
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Yes sir, tried live at 127 VAC, and at 245 VAC. Problem was that the adjacent conductors picked up current inductively and also read as live. So now I will ground the ones not being tested. Or, thinking about it, looping them back and connecting the ends should kill any inductive effect.....correct? So then, the only possible live one would be the open conductor if I am thinking correctly.

Derrick, you're probably right. I'll end up just chopping the triple off and putting a quad box on it. I just don't like the bulkiness of that, although I have a cord or two like that. But this is an exercise, for one thing, to see how many ways there are to find a hidden open in a multi conductor cable.
 
some testers are very/too sensitive
 
Oh, I've tried it from both ends, and every combination I can think of. So, I'm all in for some entirely different methods. I used to have an underground pipe locator, but I loaned out and it didn't come back. I can borrow one, but I'm not sure that's the answer yet either. I have a few ideas to try now. Will be a day or two. Labor day is tied up with honeydo's and plenty of other stuff, but I'll get this done.
 
do you have an open showing with a ohm meter?

end to end then the 3 on one end
 
I think I would go the divining rod route. Casting my vote with the with the bad 3-way end crowd. Mike
 
Yes, the neutral is open with a meter, on all three on the triple tap end, so of course it is the most suspicious end. Recall? Doubt I would qualify, being I got it free from a garage sale when I bought some other stuff.

We'll see what the divining rod says. I can wind a coil for an antenna and send a known frequency RF down the line. Surely it will drop off in strength where the break is. I will run the cord through the loop.....all 100 feet of it.
 
if you run hot to the triple end neutral and it is open at that end you should not get any cross contamination
 
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