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I bought a leviton tamper resistant outlet(No. T5325) to replace the old one in my living room.

the old one has 2 hot wires and 2 neutral wires, but has no ground wire. Can I just wire the new outlet the same way? If not, whats the correct way to do it?

behind the old outlet, its a metal box. Is this metal box used as ground?

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new outlet.

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    Can we have a photo that looks squarely into the back of the box?
    – ThreePhaseEel
    May 27 '18 at 23:18
  • The metal box has a bracket with some threaded holes where the receptacle yoke previously mounted. Is that bracket flush with the wall? I.E. tightening the screws does it bottom out metal-to-metal on the bracket, or do the drywall ears stop it first?
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    May 28 '18 at 2:25
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In order for you to find the answer to your question you need to have a continuity tester, or some type of meter that can measure ohms. You could also use a plug continuity tester

First make sure all circuits are dead in the box you are testing, then see if you can get a "ring" between the neutral and the metal box (make sure they are not touching in the box). If you do get a ring then chances are your system is grounded through the metal conduit or cable back to the panel. If it is grounded to the panel then you can go ahead and replace the receptacle. Is this a good idea? Probably not, but if your dwelling falls under an old grandfather clause that uses the metal conduit as a ground there is no reason you can't.

The more modern and acceptable approach or if you can't get a ring between the neutral and the ground, is to replace that receptacle with a GFCI receptacle. If all of the outlets on this circuit are the same configuration as the one shown. Then the best method would be to find the beginning of the circuit and install a GFCI there and label the preceding receptacles ungrounded with the little labels provided with the GFCI receptacle.

Here is a picture to help explain, just remember the is no ground. enter image description here

Good luck

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    Stiff (not flex) metal conduit is a completely legitimate grounding path. It has never stopped being so. I believe metal armor in flexible armored cable has been outlawed but is grandfathered as you say. The real question is how ground gets from the box to the receptacle. "via the screw threads" is a codevio. Either the yoke must bottom out on the box, clean without interference from those little screw-capture squares, rust, paint or schmutz; or a pigtail must be used from the socket to either a grounding clip or a 10-32 machine screw in the box.
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    May 28 '18 at 14:52
  • @Harper -- pre-bonding-strip BX armor is the only stuff that has been outlawed as an EGC -- modern AC with the bonding strip works, and so does the fancy-pants armor system on a MCI-A cable.
    – ThreePhaseEel
    May 28 '18 at 15:08
  • Right old "BX" had a small aluminum wire that you back rapped on the connector and drove the screw into.
    – Retired Master Electrician
    May 28 '18 at 15:22
  • fixed that drawing for ya...
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    May 28 '18 at 15:48

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