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Had a service call for flickering lights in a 1960s split-level that turned into a full-day hunt for a single loose neutral in a junction box buried behind a finished basement wall.
What's your best trick for tracking down a hidden bad connection when the customer really doesn't want you opening up drywall?
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jordan_walker5mo ago
Grab my non-contact voltage tester and start waving it around like a wizard with a broken wand. Follow the hot wire's ghost signal through the drywall until it gets weird. Then I break out the old toner and probe kit, listening for the sad beep that says "the problem is right here, behind this family photo from 1992." Sometimes you just have to make a very small, very strategic hole behind the couch.
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loganthompson5mo ago
Yeah, that toner beep is the sound of pure relief. Heard @jordan_walker describe it once as a ghost hunt, which is dead on.
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sandra_black3mo ago
Read a piece a few months back in an old wiring magazine that called that toner beep the "sound of closure" which totally stuck with me. @jordan_walker's ghost hunt analogy is perfect though, it really nails that feeling of chasing something you can't see down a wall. I keep telling new guys that same thing about making the small hole, you really only need enough room to poke a probe in.
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