|
I see no responses to you so far. The fact that the wire nut had melted is a sign of an overheating connection which is likely caused by either a poor electrical (high resistance) connection or the current draw is too high through the connection (overload). Sometimes stranded copper wire is tinned so it looks silver which helps to prevent copper oxidization (exposure to air causes copper to oxidize over time). Do the other ATS connections look silver when you remove their corresponding wire nuts?
Stranded wire also tends to lose individual strands when wire nuts are turned on and off many times......which can result in fewer conductors physically carrying load current (if enough strands are broken off). The gauge of both the copper gen feed conductors and the stranded ATS conductors that mate to them should be the same. Since twisting solid copper to stranded copper always seems to result in the stranded wrapping the solid, ensure that there is adequate stranded wire to wrap the solid a few times (twist together clockwise of course) and then put on an appropriately sized wire nut for the conductors being joined. You also could try the appropriately sized “set screw style wire nut” which consists of an outside threaded metal collar that physically goes over the twisted wire pair and then the set screw on the coller tightens down onto the conductors. A plastic wire cap screws onto the external collar threads. These should not vibrate loose like a regular wire nut can......it also makes inspections easy and does not cause damage to the captive wire splice, especially if stranded wire is in the mix.
__________________
|
Thor Forums
