I am upgrading an electrical service and have run in to a strange problem for my knowledge. I can not get the meter off the original meter pan. All the key's and straps are off. I am pulling and pulling but it just wont come off. Then I noticed something the glass just twists off. Am I missing something here? Guess I have been fortunate over the years to only upgrade newer services but this one has me stumpped. What am I over looking?

James

James,

Welcome aboard!
Is this an Outdoor meter installation? or Indoor?

Bill

FYI,
Keep in mind while pulling on the meter that if it is that difficult and it is old, a terminal may come loose and gound out against the back of the front cover. Sparks will fly!

Outdoor meter

Thats why they call me "Sparky!" LOL. Nah I am not being that ruff with it just a little tugs.. You should see this service tho.. Cloth wiring and the emt as rusted away around it. Have to send Joe Tedesco a pic of this one..

James,

If it's an Outdoor meter I haven't seen any that won't come off either.

In the past I've had situations where the Meter couldn't be reset in the new pan and was told by Lilco to flat-connect and tie (hang) the old meter around the new service mast/riser and notify them and they would take care of it.

Bill

Perhaps with a little more light on the situiation I will be better able to see what is going on. I thought maybe Lilco may of installed some strange locks on them that I do not know about. Eh, maybe I can get a hold of a Lipa guy tomorrow..

Thanks for your help

James

Assuming that you are replacing everything from the weatherhead on down on a standard residential service, you can always extract the meter once the power is cut off.

Shut off the branches and main in the panel.

Check that the meter has stopped spinning.

Using a ladder, rubber gloves, and a clamp-on ammeter, verify zero current in the service drop, at the weatherhead. You don't want to disconnect any appreciable current. in the next step...

Using insulated cable shears, gloves, face shield, etc., cut the conductors of the service drop (one at a time, obviously ), cutting the 2 hots first, then the neutral. I like to cut them right at the utility side of the splices, if there is enough conductor length available. Tape up the hot ends of the triplex until you are ready to reconnect the new service riser.

You can now go ahead and remove the old meter pan and service riser/weatherhead, and can hack the old meter socket apart (I've had to use a sawzall a few times if the corrosion was serious or the meter was seriously "stuck" ) If the meter is burned or cannot be salvaged by cleaning the lugs, contact the utility.

On an installation that is old and deteriorated, pulling the meter with the socket hot can be quite risky. The old plastic or ceramic meterbase could fall apart, and drop the hot (unfused!) phase conductors into each other or into the metal enclosure. Bang!

NJwirenut;
good technique!

JMichael;
there are no bypasses? , some clamp....

Good technique assuming that the your local utility permits cutting the service.??!!?

Finally got it off today.. Just killed the power at the drop, and went at the socket. After a little prying it came off.. Nice socket to say the least. The netural lug was rusted away and sitting at the bottom of the meter socket. and of coarse all cloth aluminum. But here is the real kicker. Once I get the service moved over to the new location and get all the connections made. I tested the power at the meter pan itself and no netural. I went back checked my connections to see if I did not connect it good. (Which would of been real bad if I didn't) But it was good. So I decided to check the service drop. Sure enough about 5 feet away from the pole the netural was broken off. I have no idea how it happened but it has been like that for a long time. I find it amazing how for so many years that the service feeding the house was fully run on a aluminum ground rod.
But I showed the homeowners what was wrong and contacted the local utility company to come over as soon as they could to replace the wire.
The only benifit of this job was that now the homeowners respect and trust me fully now. So starting next week I am completely rewiring there home. Once that is done I will be able to sleep at night knowing that aluminum cloth wiring is gone!
Also, just wanted to say thanks for everyone that had replied. Its great to know there are still many electricians out there who care about the quality and safety of the job!

Thanks Again!

James

James,

If the House seemed to be running fine without a Neutral connection it was more likely because of a good connection to 'city water' than any ground rod.

Glad it turned out Ok for you.

Bill

That is the thing. There was no bond to the water pipe. I was the first to install it.

Hmm,

I've seen where the little (14ga ?) Cable support wire was carrying all the neutral current. It would sometimes smoke depending on what they turned on in the house (balance) but other times it would be Ok.

In your situation the waterpipe could still have been connected somewhat through the Furnace being grounded or something like that. There's also Cable and Telephone connections that may have helped. I say this because the earth alone is just not that conductive by itself. Unless loads were always nearly perfectly balanced they should've noticed something was up.

Bill