Electrical Question

Two continuous wires are needed for the light to work. The hot leg, which your tester indicates that you have, and the neutral, or grounded leg, which you apparently don't have. The first thing I would do is be sure that the splices at light A are tight, beyond that, it would appear that the neutral has been severed

It sound like you have a broken neutral wire. With the switch on and the light bulb in place, check the neutral wire (white) with your sensor. If it beeps, then you have a broken neutral wire somewhere downstream. If it does not beep, then the problem is with the light fixture itself, which should be easy to fix.

Most problems occur at the fixtures, and rarely on the wires behind the walls. I would check the neutral wires on both lights to make sure none of them have come loose.

I don't have one of these things that beeps, so I really don't know, but does it beep when current is present, or when voltage is? If current were flowing in the area between A and B, it's either going through the lightbulb or a short circuit or something.

You know that there can be voltage without current, right?

You need to by a VOM, a volt-ohmmeter. They measure current too but not AC current and not the amounts used by household appliances.

Turn off the breaker, screw a good lightbulb in... doorbell, got to go.

They come in both types, as a current sensor or as a voltage sensor, or some of them have dual mode. It is a handy device because it is a noncontact measurement. I think the original poster was saying current when he actually meant voltage.

Thanks. I gotta get me one. I don't really have a use for it now, but I gotta get me one.

If they hit the neutral, you will still have a hot lead that your detector is sensing. However, you don't have a complete circuit that the lighting fixture needs.

Didn't read where he changed the fixture out?

Until people remodel their homes and the wiring becomes a source of problems!

When you have a run like you describe it is fairly common to join the wires in box A and feed the fixture with a pigtail. If you have a wirenut connection in that box, check to make sure the connections are tight.and both hot and neutral are being delivered to box B.

Sorry to say, it sounds like a nail or screw may have cut the wire somewhere. If it was the neutral that was cut, it would not trip a breaker.

Colbyt