# Ole Red Murray main



## JohnJ65 (May 8, 2008)

This job started out from a customer calling because the service entrance cable had caught the house on fire where it goes through the sill plate. Thankfully the firehouse was close by and damage was minimal. I gave them a price to replace the service and the panel but the insurance company would only pay for the service. The customer was told the panel needed replaced too but money was an issue with these folks. 

So I changed out the 100 amp service that was feeding the 200 amp Murray main with a new 200 amp service. (Did I mention an industrial maintenance electrician lived here before) This was last summer. 

A few months ago I get the call that the lights were flickering and power to various outlets was intermittent. I went out and found the bottom two buss fingers (aluminum) had corrosion and were oxidized badly. I suspected the main had issues from reading about red murray mains here on ET, but with her financial issues I knew that opening that can of worms was not a option now. 
I moved the circuits to another space in a sub panel and that fixed it for awhile. I talked to the customer again about the panel change, she informed me that when the income tax return came in she would call. 

Last Wednesday I got the call that the lights were flickering again and it is time to change this thing out. 

I'm glad I did not try to remove that main breaker because it took a pry bar and the buss was pretty messed up afterwards. 

Here are a few pictures of the mess before and after.


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## Black Dog (Oct 16, 2011)

JohnJ65 said:


> This job started out from a customer calling because the service entrance cable had caught the house on fire where it goes through the sill plate. Thankfully the firehouse was close by and damage was minimal. I gave them a price to replace the service and the panel but the insurance company would only pay for the service. The customer was told the panel needed replaced too but money was an issue with these folks.
> 
> So I changed out the 100 amp service that was feeding the 200 amp Murray main with a new 200 amp service. (Did I mention an industrial maintenance electrician lived here before) This was last summer.
> 
> ...


Nice Job..:thumbup:


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## Meadow (Jan 14, 2011)

Looks good 

Red Murrays are netorios for that.


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## rookie sparky (Nov 6, 2014)

They were sold under the Crouse heinds name also. I've probably changed 20 of these in my lifetime. Stab in main is a totally bad idea.


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

Nice and neat job, night and day difference.


FWIW, you can save a decent amount of money by using #2 aluminum for the GEC, especially when the water pipe enters on the opposite side of the basement.


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## btharmy (Jan 17, 2009)

You gotta like the romex selves through the PVC plumbing pipe.


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## JohnJ65 (May 8, 2008)

Yea the Romex in the plumbing conduit was special. I really enjoyed the double jakes, was a lot of fun pulling the nm cable out of that without skinning it up.

The far left panel had a bare stranded neutral and a #8 solid going to the water main.


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