how to trace wires

[justin1795]

I had my wire ran the other day. I noticed that three wires are all the same with no marks. I should how payed more attention and checked resistance and marked one with a neutral. now the ends are about 100 ft away. I haven't connected then in any way yet. aside from making 100 ft of leads how can I identify one as a neutral?

 

[Lotek]

Tie two together at one end, check for continuity between all three wires at other end, label the one that shows open as your neutral.

 

[Beemer533]

Do you have 3 runs of the same color/size THHN? Or some other kind of wire?

You can figure it out by tying 2 of the wires together at one end and doing a continuity check; this will ID one of the wires (the one with no continuity).
Label the one wire with no continuity at both ends.

Then take one of the 2 wires you tied together previously and tie it to the wire you identified. Ring it out again and mark the unlabeled conductor at both ends..
You now you have 2 out of 3 labeled...

Hopefully my description isn't too confusing!

you can also use a toner if you have access: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0042VII84/?tag=atomicindus08-20


Edit: I type too slow... Looks like Lotek covered it if all you want to ID is the neutral..

 

[justin1795]

its service wire. the one with the tracer is the ground. the other 3 all happen to be just black. what you said makes sence to me. I would have never thought to do that. thanks for the tip

 

[awdblazer]

just ground one out at a time and measure for resistance to ground

 

[scoob8000]

Shorting them and checking with a multimeter is the cheapest way to go.


But a toner and probe set is always handy. You can use it to trace out telephone, ethernet, coax, pretty much anything around the house. I've even used them with car wiring harnesses.

Here's a cheaper option:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ADHQCIO/?tag=atomicindus08-20