lighting ground question, HeLp

[fury9]

Long post (for me)I recently installed a new outdoor light. It was working fine then it just stopped. I figured burnt out bulb cause I put in a used one to begin with. Tried 5 more light bulbs and nothing. Returned fixture and put the new one up same thing, no worky.
House is part pipe, part romex, romex part is supplying fixture. The only way I can get the light to turn on is when I touch the white wire to the ground screw and it functions as it should when I turn on and off the light switch. I have the ground wire coming from the house and the ground from the fixture screwed to the mounting plate. I can see the two ground wires in the switch box are twisted and wire nutted together. I have also tried just wire nutting the house ground and fixture ground to eachother and still nothing. I know it's not right to attach the white wire to the ground wire but that's how I can get it to work. What am I missing?

 

[jbberns]

Sounds like you have an open neutral. Are the white wires tied together in the switch box?

 

['04 Cummins]

You've got a break in the white wire somewhere between the fixture and the panel. What else is on the circuit besides the outdoor light? Any other devices not working? Check all known j-boxes on that circuit for loose/broken connections. Continuity test the white wire from the light fixture to the previous junction box. You may have to replace that piece of romex.

 

[fury9]

I will go check the white wires right now. Thanks for giving me a starting point!

 

[fury9]

OK, so I hooked up the white on the light and when I turn on the switch,power goes through back down to the white in the box (milwaukee voltage detector) so I think I'm good up until that point. I have a cheap light that has two wires and a light bulb (for testing purposes).When I touch the wire to the screw on the switch and the white I get nothing, when I ground the white out I get light. I am guessing that my problem lies farther down the white wire towards the panel. The thing that ***** my garage is finished. I haven't done anything to any wiring and the house was built in 88. The whole garage is on a 15a breaker, 1 gfci outlet garage door opener outlet, 2 ceiling lights and two exterior lights each controlled by their own switch(sub panel coming when funds allow)and everything else works like it did. Am I on the right track?

 

['04 Cummins]

So everything else in the garage is working properly?

I'm not sure by your explanation, does the hot/neutral power feed go to the light first, or the switch? If it goes to the switch first, do you have 120v between black and white on the line side?

 

[fury9]

Everything else is working normally, I think it goes to the switch first I'll have to double check that and check for 120 from where ever it comes in at. Thanks again