Hey y'all,
Anyone have any tips on removing Zinsco breakers form vertical-bus panels? Recently I had to swap out a breaker in a subpanel which was full. The breaker clip of the one I was taking out was in good condition (not corroded or welded to busbar). Even after prying back the retaining bar on the terminal side, I had to pry out the old breaker (and I broke it in the process.)
On the horizontal bus panels, it's easy to get the breakers out, once you move the retainer bar up out of the way. But the vertical bus panels aren't set up this way. So, what method do you use? Yea, and don't tell me to just replace the panel.
One thing I noticed once when stripping the breakers out of an old Zinsco, the entire hot bus assembly can be removed from the panel--just popped out. Now I think I know how those old panels were made up--the cables brought in and dressed, neutrals & grounds terminated, then the "guts" put in, feeders landed, and the breakers clipped in. Pretty slick, really.
Cliff
