Grounding in ceiling light.

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Blooze

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We had to replace our entryway light yesterday and after a few hiccups got it up. First off it had an old fiberglass box from whent he house was built in the late 70's that was basically hanging there on nothing. Took it out and put a Saf-T-Brace hanger with the metal box in it. Then of course the wires were just barely long enough to get to the box (12-3 big round black insulated stuff as the light in on a three way switch). Had to go through the knockouts that line up with the box hanger mounting bolts. The wires are sitting up against the bottom of the bolts as I can't bend the wires down enough not to. I do have the wires in far enough that the outer insulation sheath is what is touching the bolts. Should be OK. I used these cable connectors in the box.



The feeder grounds were pretty short, so I pigtailed onto them, ran it to the ground screw on the light strap, secured, and tied the end to the pigtail to the ground wire from the fixture. I had to use a flat washer, tooth washer, and nut between the strap and the box to make the canopy bolts stick out far enough as well. I mounted the strap using the 10-24 fan bolts and it is secure and tight. I get good ground continuity between the strap and the box, strap and the feeder grounds, and box and feeder grounds. Would it have been better to take the pigtail to the box then rely on the strap bolts to supply the ground to the fixture? It was hard enough getting all the three-way wiring back into the box.
 
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Blooze

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I finally found some of the larger box Saf-t-braces so I think I may switch the one I installed out for the larger box for more room. One thing that still is a problem is that the hanger bolts sit right in front of the knockout. Can I cut down the bolts so there is some clearance there for the 12-3 wire as long as the threads reach thru the whole nut?

Update:
Since this seems non-interesting to y'all :)
I ended up just putting two nuts on the bolts and cutting them off with a Dremel. Put a slight bevel on the end edge and smoothed the end up. This will leave about 1/8" of bolt sticking above the locking nuts that came with the kit and will only be about 1/8" into the knockout space. Should work fine for a 4lb light fixture and leave enough space for the wire. If I was hanging a fan with this scenario I would have called an electrician already and let them deal with it.

Since I'll have to attach the light crossbar to the ears instead of the fan mounts, like I did the shallow box, I'll need to space out the crossbar with some washers so the light bolts will be long enough to attach the canopy (has those little round knurled nuts on the outside of the canopy that holds the whole light up), unless there's some way to get longer bolts. My ceiling has about 1/8" of texture mud on it so the box is that much short of being flush and makes the bolts that much too short. Grrr. I'd rather have longer bolts I need to cut to fit.
 
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