No wonder you're confused. You're looking at the metal piece on the Challenger breaker and thinking "that is the contact clip".
No, it is not the contact clip. It is the CTL reject feature. It is simply designed to "get in the way" if you try to plug it into a panel that doesn't have a notched bus stab.
The notched bus stabs are used in the CTL scheme to allow tandems where they are allowed, but reject them where they are forbidden. The scheme came about in 1966 and was abolished quite recently.
Your BR2020 replacement breaker is a non-CTL type, so it does not have the reject tab, that is why there's a slot there instead of a metal blocker.
As to whether it is OK to use a non-CTL breaker, I would consult Eaton on how the abolition of CTL affects their breaker choices.
The actual contact clip on this Type A breaker has been obliterated somehow. I imagine it fell out in pieces in your hand or in the bottom of the panel?
Why won't it go in?
- the original contact clip is still there getting in the way. Or
- the bus stab has taken damage as part of whatever event destroyed the contact clip. Or
- everything is fine and the insertion force is simply more than you expected.
You must use a breaker UL-listed or UL-classified for the panel.
Your panel labeling requires a Type C or Type A, such as an A2020. Search your new breaker carefully for all markings. If you see something like "Type A2020" then you are all set.
If you do not see that mark, look closer, hint hint!
If you cannot find any such breaker, then your last option is a UL-Classified breaker. In 1” breakers that would be Eaton CL. However they do not make tandems.
Chinnecticut breakers are dangerous garbage from you know where, and that particular breaker is a 2-pole, 240V type which is designed to straddle two spaces like a Crouse Hinds does, and it must be used with half width lefty-righty thin breakers. In fact, my hunch is that it is made for Crouse-Hinds.
Challenger breakers must go.
Challenger cheated on their UL testing, their breakers won't trip when they're supposed to. They all need to go and be replaced.
Fortunately, they did a fine job with the panel bus design. BRyant acquired their bus and renamed it BR (so they could outlaw the defective C/A breakers in their panels). So you can keep your panel.
And now you know why that breaker says what it says!
. I tried to insert the Eaton onto the backplane, but couldn't get it to mount correctly. I wasn't sure this is the correct breaker, so I didn't want to to force it. I also found a Connecticut circuit breaker on Amazon that supposedly replaces Challenger series A, but it has two steel hooks on the sides which my breaker doesn't have.
