Open common wire in wall

[homebuff]

My wife heard a popping noise inside one wall of our living room wall & lost all power to one of the receptacles that was powering her computer & one lamp plugged into the receptacle.
Tryng to find a way to test which breaker supplies feed to the wall receptacle.
I know it has a open in the white common wire in the loom cause I had the same problem some years back but the lights were flickering at that time & knew which breaker fed it.
Forgot to mark the breaker so i'm in the blind.
Had to remove the outer panels on the trlr. to gain access to a white common wire that mice corroded the wires & burn't it into.
Fixed that repair a long while back & the problem lyes in another area in the same wall.
Want to trip the breaker till I can get time to get in there & repair the open.
I was told i could use one of those yellow plug testers that has 3 lights on it which I do have one.
Question is: How do i test the wall receptacle with that tester or any other way to test it maybe with an ohm meter.
I'm pretty safe when it comes to working with electrical outlets & switches.
Its got my wife spooked.'

[JD]

Those small outlet testers with the 3 yellow lights will detect an open neutral wire. I think they are great for all homeowners to have. You can get them for a couple of bucks at Amazon_com.

As for the repair, it is the policy of this forum not to give out information on electrical or gas repairs. A mishap in these areas could be catastrophic. I would recommend that you refer that work to a professional. There may be other DIY forums and maybe even an electrician's forum that would answer your question for you.

Good luck with your repair. I hope you get it checked out real soon.

JD

[Greg S]

Chances are high that all the outlets in the same room are on the same breaker. May also be more than one room on same breaker.
They should be wired in line which means all outlets beyond the open should also be dead unless it is at the end of the line itself. Assuming there are still working outlets in the room plug a radio into another working outlet and start flipping breakers until the radio dies.

[DaleM]

homebuff, plug that 3 light tester into the outlet you have lost the neutral on. The tester usually has a troubleshooting chart on it. When you get the light configuration that shows an open neutral start shutting down breakers until you get the right one, evidenced by all the lights on the tester going off.

[homebuff]

Thank's to all ya'lls comments & support.
All I want to do for now is find that breaker that powers that circuit & kill it till I can get into there & fix it.
I already have the tester & found a site yesterday with a chart for the tester.
Will get on the project real soon & see what happens.
As I had mentioned, the wall receptical on the adjasent wall across from it has power & I plugged one of those lg. yellow square 4 plug boxes into that wall that has a rocker switch (that turns it off & on) on it & plugged in the computer & the lamp into it for the time being till I could get power back to the dead receptical.
These old 88 model trlrs. have wierd wiring on them not like regular houses.
The dead receptical has a awitch on the wall that comtrols it & the other switch beside it controls the porch lite which is also dead.
I removed the dead receptical (which was live at the time) a while back & run wires from it to a new weatherproof receptical on the porch for my freezer & ceiling fan I installed a while back also.
I took some romex wire & cut the main wires in the wall & wire nutted them together (tightly) to the outside receptical.
I just hope it's in that area where the open is & not in the wall cause i'll have to pull all the wood panels on that wall.
Cannot get to the outside panels for the lg. covered porch deck I built a long time ago.
I was thinking I might have a small water leak in that wall where the porch meets up with the trlr. at the top where I used long lag screws to support it at the top & didn't use sealer there *& may have disturbed the roof panel's running along the edge of the trlr.
Will get all that corrected this summer even if I have to pull back the porch for the repair.
Thank's to you all!
Looks like I have a very large project ahead of me.
David

[homebuff]

After digging in my junk storage, I found the tester & plugged it in & no lights came on so I guess that means it has an open power (hot) wire?
That's what it specifies on the chart on the tester.
Have to trip the main box & ohm out the hot wires to the single leg breakers on the hot side black wires & find the open that way I guess.
Having no lights lit on the tester makes it a hard task finding which breaker is the on the open circuit.
Taking my vacation very soon & I think I can remove the outer metal panel on the porch but will most likely have to remove the front door & frame since the outer metal panel is right next where the receptical is.
Don't want to mess with the inside wood paneling cause I might tear them up removing them.
Wife would be real mad.
Thank's!
David

[Brenda (OH)]

one other thing to check for.... make sure there are no gfi outlets on the circuit and that they are not tripped.... a friend of mines outdoor outlet was getting wet, and was causing the gfi outlet inside the garage to trip because it was on the same circuit, which in turn was doing something strange like shutting off the garage door or something... anyways, it was something bizzare, and it only happened when it rained lol...

so, my point was, if their are gfi outlets in the home, make sure they are not tripped and on the breaker, and if they are tripped, it may be something else that has to get solved when the electrician is there..... vacuum cleaners, blow dryers, window air conditioner, microwave ovens and space heaters are items that sometimes draw too much for the MH circuits and trip circuit breakers... not so sure if they trip gfi still learning the electrical stuff lol

Brenda (OH)

[Greg]

Since this is turning into a more in depth question I'm locking this per our policy on Electrical & gas questions. Greg