Was wondering if anyone had a link or two for finding info on replacement bus kits for 20 year or so old resi panels.
ITE-Siemens 200A single phase in this case. The label has washed off due to the same leakage that's causing corrosion of the busses.
My wholesalers are getting slower and less interested by the day with requests for info that doesn't move mountains of product through their small shop. I understand but----argh!!!(much cruder explicative actually used)
I need to find this info on my own, with a little help, of course.

Might as well change out the entire panelboard and cabinet instead of going through all the trouble to find a 20 year old replacement.

Forget replacing them SCRAP THE PANEL,you will need a donor panel for parts & do you want to be married to a used panel for a year....

I was faced with this situation, only in that case it was a GE panel. I was stunned to find an absolute lack of information or assistance available from GE - or the distributor. Lot of help they were!

In the end, all I really had to do was walk through the warehouse with a tape measure. The second panel I opened had the exact correct guts ... making change-out a breeze. Now - Why was no one able to look that information up, to tell me that the interior of panel "X" was the same? Or, look up the factory part number, and simply sell me a replacement buss set?

Now, you may wonder why I didn't do a "complete panel replacement." First of all, the busses were damaged when the maintenance guy "cleaned' them with a Dremel - hot! They were losing breaker connections to arcing one by one.

The commercial building had the panel set in a block wall, with something like 15 pipes coming into it. The most important point, though, was that this customer provided phone / internet services for hundreds of customers, and "going down" was a BIG deal.

Simply replacing the damaged busses with new ones - from a stock panel, perfect fit to box and cover - was a half-hour deal, with many circuits back up inside of 15 minutes.

Frankly, it concerns me that these are the same folks (GE) who make jet engines and nuclear power plants.

Reno:
I have to agree with you re: GE. GE Supply used to be good-great.....back 10 years ago. Now, forget it.
Matter of fact, a EC told me last week that they closed the counter down at the GE Supply/GEEXPRO in Raritan Ctr.\

Back to the subject....glad you worked it out. As to Chico's resi....the panel change may be the best solution.

Since any info as to the type of panel was sparse,a picture would be helpful....

Have you considered a 'retrofit panelboard'?
http://www.eaton.com/EatonCom/Marke...anelboards/RetrofitPanelboards/CT_112481

Discussed here:
http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php?t=95071
http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php?t=97619

-Jon

Chico... You could try some of the breaker resellers around your area... Sometimes they get older panels when they purchase used breakers for refurbishing. If you're in So Cal I know a few places you could try taking a few detailed photo's to. other than that, you could try the Eaton retrofit.. I've heard about those a few times, but I've yet to use one. You might need the panel CAT #'s from your existing can to order the retrofit though

Reno-
I have a buddy that works at GE about an hour south of you. They like to joke about an "unofficial" motto they have.
"GE---removing quality wherever it is found." or something like that.

I do realize a service change might be the only way to go but if I could avoid chopping up the house and possibly putting the client in the dark for a night I would go that route instead. I'm not concerned about being married to the job in this case. It's getting harder and harder to get the inspectors and the poco to cooperate with you in making a disconnect-reconnect happen in one day around these parts too.

I was hoping that in this day information technology it would be possible to find numerous links to these kinds of resources but I guess not.
I guess if my wholesaler's obsolete panel guy doesn't come through I'll be walking the warehouse with my Fat Max hoping to get some of Reno's luck. If I can find the busses they would change out in 15 or 20 minutes.

I'll look at the Eaton retro-kits but if they are too expensive or complicated I'll just change the panel. If I'm going to go to too much time and expense I might as well do it right.

As far as the time spent trying to find the busses, I see that as developing a resource that could be used again in the future.

Lostazhell-- I'm in in N.cal. Chico to be exact. You guys probably thought I was the Chico from the DIY shows didn't you?

Norcal-- After I go back and reread some of the posts asking how to upload images I'll put the 2 pics I took with cell phone.

Here goes a try at photos----

Well that didn't work quite right but I don't have time to figure it out right now.

The innards of that load center look very similar to the one in my house, which is a 24-space Siemens panel that was installed in 1994. Do you want the model number for that panel?

Trumpy- Thanks for fixing the link. What was I doing wrong?

Brian- I'd love the #. Any help is welcome. Thanks.

The catalog number for my panel which is a 20 space panel, not a 24 space as I thought, is G2040MB1200.

The part number for a 24 space panel is G2440MB1200, according to a PDF file I found on Siemen's website.

No idea if these part numbers are still available.

You know I really cant beleive the responses on here. Only thing to be done in this case is replace the panel!!

Changing anything in a UL rated panel voids any UL rating. You are opening up yourself for extreme liability if anything remotely to do with this panel where to go wrong after you touched it. My god its 20 years old. REPLACE the PANEL. I see responses from some of you and any respect I had for you goes right out the window. Sometimes I come here just and shake my head.

Ayrton, I appreciate your concern. Yet, I'm not sure I follow your argument.

First of all, even UL will not say something 'voids' the listing. The most UL will say is "we don't know." In many cases, they will say "sure, go ahead."

For example, the replacement inserts made by Cutler-Hammer are specifically listed for replacing the insides of other panels. It's a legitimate product.

Second - as in the job I did - it's pure silliness to assert that replacing the damaged innards of a Brand X panel with new innards from another Brand X panel could in any way affect the listing, or safety, of the panel.

Finally - again as in my instance - it's not always possible to replace the panel. Or, at least, not possible without major construction efforts and a prolonged shutdown of a business that really couldn't be shut down.

As for the panel being "old" at twenty years .... it's been my experience to rarely see equipment that new! I just came from a place whose equipment was old when Eisenhower was president. When my own home was wired, Hitler was still planning to invade Poland.

ayrton, since you're chiding everything on this thread, I assume that you've read the links that winnie provided? Then by now you understand that the cabinet is not part of the panel. The cabinet is the "cabinet", and the panel is the "panelboard", which needs of course to be mounted in a cabinet.

I haven't seen anyone here suggest modifying a panel; they have only suggested mounting an unmodified, new panel into an existing cabinet.

No problem there.

And if you're still queasy about that, follow winnie's links, and the links in MikeHoltForum threads that winnie linked to, to find UL Listed retrofit panels (or panel interiors if you prefer) in Cutler Hammer's CH, BR, and PRL1a lines that are listed to be retrofitted into any cabinet of suitable size.