tricky electrical installation

[Gary Fitzgerald]

In many homes in my area and in my house built in 1942 we have two wire and 1/2 steel flex. The flex grounds all the metal boxes. The two wires are cloth insulated and in my house very brittle as I found out when I changed all the plugs and switches out.My question is should we call the braided insulation out since we can see it in the main panel. I also found a tricky electrical installation, Some one changed the location of the porch light using the existing switch and since there was no neutral wire in the box they they just used the ground for the neutral to the light. Would this application compromise the whole electrical system ?

[Gary Fitzgerald]

I cant believe we don't have an electrician in this group

[Dominic Maricic]

We have quite a few, I just don't know where they are hiding. Probably still partying from Christmas

[Fred Sweezer Sr.]

You should Change the wiring!

One easy upgrade is to replace the first outlet on each circuit line with a GFCI Residual “Current Circuit Breaker”.  that will according to code allow you to have ungrounded three prong outlets that are down fed from the GFCIi with two wire cable.  Otherwise you should have two prong outlet.  it is not code worthy to install three prong outlets on a two wire system without GFCI protection.  You electrician can do this pretty easily.  it is not a perfect solution.  The GFCI will have a tenancy to trip occasionally.  But it is a solution that improves the safety.

National Electrical Code requires GFCI devices intended to protect people to interrupt the circuit if the leakage current exceeds a range of 4-6 mA of current (the trip setting is typically 5 mA) within 25 milliseconds. GFCI devices which protect equipment (not people) are allowed to trip as high as 30 mA of current.

[Dominic Maricic]

Welcome to the boards Fred. Nice first post!

[Gary Fitzgerald]

Thanks Fred and welcome to the board. Since it is in flex I w am going to pull a new hot and neutral back to the old light location. The steel flex grounds my electrical system. I will test all the plugs and switches when I finish. Thank again for the reply

[Gary Fitzgerald]

Fred when you get a chance finish up your profile so we know where your from.

[Frank Newman]

In many homes in my area and in my house built in 1942 we have two wire and 1/2 steel flex. The flex grounds all the metal boxes. The two wires are cloth insulated and in my house very brittle as I found out when I changed all the plugs and switches out.My question is should we call the braided insulation out since we can see it in the main panel. I also found a tricky electrical installation, Some one changed the location of the porch light using the existing switch and since there was no neutral wire in the box they they just used the ground for the neutral to the light. Would this application compromise the whole electrical system ?

The nice thing about having a systems wired with conduit (and flex) is that the wires are not stapled in place so new single conductor wiire could be "easily" installed using the old wire as a "pull wire".  It is also possible that the conduit (if continuous) could serve as your ground conductor, but it would be best to check with the local authority on that.  On the second question, as I understand your description, it apprears to be incorrect, but I don't see how it could "compromise the entire electrical system".