Why Thursday Sucked - Part 4

I was hoping to post this continuation much sooner, my apologies.

After Thursday night's peculiar electrical happenings, we set about first thing Friday morning to find answers. After we both did that psychological cringe at the very thought, Mark fired up the generator. So far, so good. I manned the electrical panel in the hallway, ready to do the click/clack test through the breakers while Mark switched on and stood watch over the bathroom and various other light circuits. We left the evap. cooler off and the bathroom lights came on without any show. Again, so far, so good.

Click, "nope", clack. Click, "kitchen light", clack. And so on down the two rows of breakers. Click, "Nope, keep going", clack. "Uhm, Mark, I just ran out of Clicks here to try." We caught each other's incredulous, somewhat horrified looks of speculation. "Surely not ... hit the main breaker." Click ... the bathroom lights STILL shone. "I'll hit the red emergency switch in the hall then." Nothing.

Since the evap. cooler was more critical in this 100 degree weather than the bathroom lights and much easier to address in terms of access and running new wires, we decided to run new wiring from it directly to the generator panel. Mark turned off the generator and removed the appropriate new siding panel (the recent rat re-siding project) while I tackled the cooler control switch inside. I drew all the connections in rough schematic form and disconnected everything involving a new power feed. As with all such projects, it took considerably longer than we had hoped since we had to find the proper wire and even longer to find a proper heavy duty plug to match the outlet on the generator. I reconnected the switch wires and eventually got them all back into the box which is a little like forcing a full pot of barely cooked linguine into a tea cup. Once the new wire was in place, Mark reinstalled the wall panel and fired up the generator. So far, so good! Later that night, Mark hit the bathroom switch out of habit and ... guess what? Not so good. Nothing had changed. Now we're getting discouraged - that bathroom wiring is going to be a bear to replace, and upsetting now that we have all that nice new drywall finished. This is going to be one of those much avoided projects, I already know that. In the interim, tape over the bathroom switch. Okay, so far so good.

Earlier this week, I switch on the evap. cooler and the motor starts up and then grinds back down in RPM noisily, accompanied by the disturbingly familiar sound and smell of frying wire. I was able to immediately hit the switch. Sniff, sniff, sniff. So far so good. Sniff, sniff, sniff ... still okay. I sleep lightly that night, just in case.

The next morning, I climb up to the roof, glad that the sun has not turned the steel roof into a griddle yet. I figure that I will pull apart the junction box within the cooler itself and check the motor while I am at it. Before I get that far, I discover a foot long section of exposed wire with a very nice burn through about an inch long. That would certainly explain the crispy critter smell from the night before. Still, I find it puzzling that the burn spot is not at any point of possible chafing or touching anything at all. Perhaps it was some annoying Valkyrie perched up there like a gargoyle, picking away at the exposed wire with a claw or two for vile amusement. Given that a lot of Indians refuse to come up our road at night, I suppose it is a vague possibility. Whatever, it was obvious that we would have to replace this wire as well and I would be fighting with that ghastly control switch wiring AGAIN. Oh joy of joys, especially if Mark had to remove that panel again or we had to disturb the cooler in the process.

I was able to free up the wire in the box and connect a new run of wire to its ends. With Mark up on the ladder outside, the new wire pulled through without any hang-ups. So far, so good. Why do I bother to say that any more? I got back up on the now much hotter roof and realized that we were one wire short in the sheath. We had to back feed the works again and refeed it with an additional wire taped on (just like the original had been done - DOH!). What a classic cluster. In the meantime, Mark cut a few lengths of plastic pipe which I could feed over the new wire to protect it. Needless to say, I was not happy burning my buttocks on the now really hot roof while reconnecting wires and reinstalling the junction box. So far so good though! Just don't touch that bathroom light switch, we don't want to deal with THAT mess yet.

Okay, any insights on all of this foolishness yet? The bathroom light circuit was the only one which was responding in this strange manner. Any theories would be much appreciated. Questions? Just fire away. Also, apologies for any typos, etc. but my proof reader has long since gone to bed, completely exhausted.