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Ok here we go. I got a little too confident and now I have no power. Originally I had no power to half my garage. The fuse was blown and when I would try to put a new one in it didn’t wanna go in. Like it was warped. So I decided to clean the contact. I pulled the big fuses in fuse box. (The ones that look like shotgun shells) to kill power and opened it up. It was full of crap and mud dabbed next so I cleaned them out then took apart the fuse holder and lightly sanded the contact and got the fuse to fit again. I put it all back together and this is when I messed up.

I decided it would be a good idea to blow out the box with air compressor. While doing so I stick my nozzle where I couldn’t see and BAM!!!!! It touched a wire I assume coming from the breaker and running into the box. It tripped one of the two breakers for garage with the lower off at the breaker I used a wire brush to clean up the charred wire. I did not take it apart though. Now I have no power at all to my garage. Well I have power cause if I put my tester near outlets it beeps but only on some the fuse that I shorted does not beep and none of the outlets beep. What did I do?

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    At this point I'd just pressure wash the whole works. :D Some photos would help identify possible failure points. With all your effort you could be halfway to a modern breaker panel. – isherwood Jan 25 at 18:54
  • I hear salt water is great for cleaning contacts..... NO! DON'T DO IT! KIDDING!!! – Daniel Griscom Jan 25 at 20:04
  • Do you know what type of fuse your box takes? – ThreePhaseEel Jan 26 at 0:34
  • It uses the big screw in fuses. I will take pics tmrw. I want to upgrade to a newer panel but cash is tight. How much does a new panel cost to have installed tupically – Bigno Jan 27 at 4:42
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You probably blew the cartridge fuse, the one that looks like a shot gun shell, non contact testers may see a voltage on an opened fuse of this type as the material inside to reduce the arc flash can be slightly conductive, no real current is available but enough voltage to trip the non contact tester this is why nothing is working. Try replacing the fuse or get a volt meter and measure across the fuse a good fuse will show 0 volts across it but an open fuse 120 across.

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  • I will try that thank u. I have a bolt meter when I test the cartridge fuse do I do it while it’s in box or take out and do I just put a contact at each end? And what do I set bolt meter on – Bigno Jan 27 at 4:44
  • If you pull it out put the meter on ohms and measure from end to end the reading should be zero if good. If you leave it in the circuit put your meter on AC volts and measure end to end if you read zero it would be good. – Ed Beal Jan 27 at 18:12
  • Ok got that issue fixed. It was the breaker. I put a new one in and I’m back to how I was before. Not sure if I should start a new thread to ask about this so people don’t waste their time trying to help me. I will start a new thread. I hope u guys can and will help me. Thank u for all the help so far. – Bigno Jan 28 at 1:30

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