I am switching out the outlets and switches in my kitchen and the breaker keeps popping.?

Question

Ok. I've already done the rest of the house, including the gfi in the bathroom...it's all good. The breakers in question involve a split oulet a split switch & outlet and a plain and simple outlet. Yes, I broke off the tab between the red & black wires on the split ones....but the breakers (there are two) are still poppinng (making me think it has to do with one of the split ones....any thoughts? Could something be faulty...if so how do I figure out which one it is?

Ok. I checked the wiring again and all seems to be good...black and red on the right, white on the left and bare copper for the ground. Still trips the breaker though!

Answer 1

if you have two breakers tripping, you have two hot wires from seperate circuits touching each other. the best way to determine the problem is by process of elimination. turn off breaker, isolate one black wire, turn breaker on. if it trips again turn off breaker and isolate another wire, leave the first one isolated as well. turn on breaker, and so on. if the feed coming in is from a 3 wire (14-3 has one white one ground one black and on red) then you may have the red and black touching someplace. good luck.

Answer 2

You have a dead short somewhere in that circuit, recheck your wiring. You probably switched a silver and gold wire somewhere or got a green one in the wrong place. Also you could have a bad breaker. I've had those before also.

Answer 3

this happened to me on a 3/way switch. when i put the boxes back into the opening one of the wires bent enough to touch one another which tripped breaker. worth a check.

Answer 4

where does your feed go to? I'm figuring in order you gave. I would make the bottom of the split outlet hot (black) & top switched (red). Black feeds split switch/outlet. Red wire from switch to top of split outlet. Black feeds regular outlet.
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Answer 5

One of the wires is in the wrong place.