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Circuit Breaker Panel - Ground Bar Mismatch?

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charmin35

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Mar 13, 2019
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73
Location
North Carolina
I'm running a 100-amp service to a sub panel in my detached garage that I'm building. Almost all my materials are in, so I was hoping to start doing rough-in this weekend.

I bought an Eaton BR type main panel with a 100-amp main circuit breaker from factory. It doesn't include a ground bar, so I bought an Eaton BR ground bar. Removed green bonding screw on the neutral bus, went to screw in the ground bar, but... What?! The holes don't match up. The panel has holes 2 inches apart, but the bar (and all other bars I looked up online) have 1 3/4" space between holes.

Doh. Ok, so I looked up how to attach a ground bar, and some people say use self tapping screws (10-32 fine thread), or drill a hole and use a nut, scraping off paint for better contact.

Any sparkies out there that can comment on best practice or code for attaching ground bar?

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OP
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charmin35

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Mar 13, 2019
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North Carolina
One of my Town's inspectors dropped by today and hooked me up out of the bromanship of his heart after I asked him about this issue, he brought a 10-32 tap and drilled the holes for the ground bar for me. Didn't mention anything about scraping paint off the panel or anything, just tapped the two screw holes and mounted with the 5/8" 10-32 screws that came with the bar.

I was gearing up to scrape off panel enamel and buy a triple tap tool and do the tap myself, and maybe put a 10-32 nut on the back as well. But I suppose I don't have to now!
 
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jetnow1

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Jun 27, 2016
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CT.
So many times we hear horror stories about inspectors, It is good to hear the other side.
My experience with inspectors is mostly positive, as with any group of people 20% cause 80 % of the problems.
 
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mm08822

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I have added many ground bars into panels and not all were made by original panel mfr. Many times one but not two pre-tapped holes are available/match spacing. I just drill/tap for a 10-32 hole and call it done.

Somewhere in code (art 300?) - it requires 2 full threads (machine threads only) thru enclosure to be considered connected. Thru-bolting with paint removed and star washers is another common method.
 
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Norcal

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Eaton BR panel = Zinsco II made for the cheap trunk slammers. I will use any other panel before a BR.
 
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rlitman

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Long Island
sberry said:
No self drillers, must be tapped threads. We might get contrary opin here but I have bolted them on, even under inspection.
Click to expand...

ONE screw must go into tapped threads for the bar to be properly bonded to the panel. So, you only need one of the holes to line up. The second screw can be a self tapping screw.

There's ALWAYS one tapped hole in the panel, and it is usually in a reasonable location to connect to one hole of your ground bar. Why we're discussing tapping the backs of panels makes no sense to me (someone who owns four triple-taps).
 
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Norcal

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jeffmattero76 said:
What is a "cheap trunk slammer"???

Sent from my SM-G530T using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Somebody who works out of their trunk, you also get a taillight warranty, it’s warranted until you can no longer see their taillights. :D
 
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ford33

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Feb 26, 2011
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Location
Chicago, IL. USA
I had the same problem with my recent Eaton BR panel installation. I thought it was a fluke that the Eaton ground bar mounting holes did not align with the Eaton panel holes. Looks like Eaton has a manufacturing quality issue.
 
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exranger06

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Location
CT
If you look at Eaton's catalog:
https://www.eaton.com/ecm/groups/public/@pub/@electrical/documents/content/vol01_tab01.pdf
They have ground bar kits that have both 1 3/4" spacing and 2" spacing. But they have an error in their catalog. If you look on page 72, there are kits for BR plug-on-neutral panels (which is what OP has). All of them have 2" spacing, according to that page of the catalog. All of the legacy ground bar kits also supposedly have 2" spacing.

Now, if you look at page 28, you'll see all of the ground bar kits for CH panels. Note that they use the same catalog numbers as the BR kits. You'll see that all of the plug-on-neutral kits on that page also have 2" spacing. However, the legacy kits use 1 3/4" spacing. So page 28 says they have 1 3/4" spacing, and page 72 says that those SAME catalog numbers have 2" spacing. :confused::headscrat According to the link OP posted, he bought a legacy ground bar kit, catalog # GBK1420. And OP confirmed it has 1 3/4" spacing. So apparently page 28 is correct, and someone goofed up page 72. What he SHOULD have bought is a GBKP1420, which is for plug-on-neutral panels and has the correct 2" spacing.

And to further add to the confusion, if you look up the GBKP1420 on Home Depot's website, they incorrectly state that it has 1 3/4" spacing. :headshake
 
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sberry

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I was busy and really didn't want to be part of a mess where the inspector had been there but should have got a pic. Was spozed to be a 200 service that was kind of poorly engineered to start with. The hub between the base and the panel was boogered, wrong brand maybe but had a piece of inner tube as some kind of gasket, only 1 screw, maybe 2, and had a piece of 6/3 range cable stripped and used between base and panel,,,, they used black and white and red.for neutral.
They had got deposit,, got money somehow for this. Whole thing just a mess.
 
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