If the sub-panel is in an attached garage, the box/ground and the neutral bar stay connected. If its a detached garage, there must be a separate ground bar that is isolated from neutral.

For a detached garage you would have to remove the jumper and add a ground bar. A detached garage would also need two 8 foot ground rods at least 6 feet apart, connected to the box by a solid 8 gauge copper ground wire. In any case, all ground wires need to be connected to the ground bar.

Wiring a dedicated circuit for a hard-wired welder or for a hard-wired compressor can have some non-standard requirements because of start-up current vs. continuous load amperage, but I can't explain them properly. However, I can't see how using a 40 amp breaker with 12 gauge wire would have ever been correct.

Bruce

I was under the impression that in a sub-panel the neutral (grounded) and ground(ing) conductors were always separated. In a detached structure, then ground rods are also required.

Beyond that the ground wire coming in with the feeders also looks like it might undersized, just something to check. What's the small white wire (2-conductor?) coming in at the top right of the box? The neutral wire of the feeder should be re-identified. Today #6 and smaller need to have the correct color jacket but that was probably different in '83. When in you install the ground bar, remove the bonding strap. Heck, I might be inclined to rip out the whole thing and just put in a bigger box to just to have a little room to work neatly.

Given the problems in the panel, I would open every box in that garage and check for other mistakes. Then move back to the house. Goodness knows what you might find!

Sorry Bruce, you are wrong. In fact, as far as the old codes go, you have it exactly backwards. You could get away without running both a neutral and ground to a remote structure. It's not optional under the current codes.

Other that at the SERVICE DISCONNECT, the grounds and neutrals must ***NOT*** be connected together.

The rules for welders differ from other circuits. The breaker could indeed be 200% of the conductor ampacity. Of course, once you use that circuit for anything but a welder, you're breaking the code.

It appears the feeder has three wires and a slightly smaller ground wire (that may be OK, I can't see the gauges. It would be helpful to know where the green wire that comes in with the feeders goes. Does it run back to the main panel with the feeder, or is it connected to the local ground system.

So what's CLEARLY WRONG:

1. Ground and neutrals must be separated (unless this is a detached building WITH a ground system AND you're grandfathered under the old code).

2. Neutral on the feeder needs to be colored white.

What's probably wrong:

1. If that 40A breaker isn't feeding a welder any more, replace it with a 20A breaker

What may be wrong:

1. If this is a detached garage, makes sure there is a grounding system.

2. Make sure the feeder breaker (in the other panel) matches the ampacity of the feeder conductors.

3. May not be a ground system if this is detached. May be lacking the separate ground/neutral run now in the current codes.

By the way, it may be an optical illusion, but it looks like the wires going to the 20A breakers in the pictures might only be 14g. In that case the breakers need to be 15A.

One more concern. Under the modern code (and I'm talking like the past 30 years), any 120V 15 or 20A receptacles in the garage REQUIRE GFCI. Even, the garage door one.

The neutral wire has white tape wrapped around it, its a bit hard to see.

It is a detached garage.

The 2 small white conductors go to the garage door opener switch that is attached to the front of the subpanel cover (not shown).

The main (in the house) is breakered at 60 amp.

I will check the outgoing wires, but pretty sure they are 12 AWG.

I am going to replace the 20 amp breakers with 20 amp AF/GFCI breakers.

Will be getting rid of the 40 amp breakers and associated wiring.

Should those 60 amp breakers be changed to 20 amp?

I discovered this, I didn't do it, just going to correct it!

Is there any way to run the ground wire to the ground rods neatly?

Ron - detached garage about 30 ft. from main panel, wires are in buried gray pvc; I have copies of the city approved permit inspections from 1983. Don't know how it passed unless changes were made later ie the 2 40 amp breakers. I didn't want to run any new wiring, just fix what's there. The Arc Fault/GFCI breakers are actually cheaper than just the GFCI breakers.

Unless you need more than two 120v/20amp circuits, Ron suggestion makes a lot of sense and would save you lot of headaches and work.

You didn’t answer the questions about any type of grounding system for the garage and where that green wire goes.

Ron - you are correct: I had it wrong about whether you bond the panel in attached garage - it should not be bonded. However, I did not have it "backwards" with respect to current code for a detached garage.

The current code adopted by most US AHJ's for a sub-panel in a detached garage is to use a 4 wire feeder from main to sub (e.g. 6/3), remove bonding to separate the neutral and ground in the sub-panel, install two 8 foot ground rods at least 6 feet apart, and ground the rods to the sub-panel grounding bar. I have this exact setup, except with 2-2-2-4 AL as a feeder.

Ditching the sub-panel - Since its currently set up for the old code version (3 wire feeder), I agree that converting it to a MWBC with two 20 amp circuits may be the simplest solution. You don't have to add the ground rods, and a 20 amp dual breaker should work fine with the existing wire. You could use a GFCI breaker at the main panel, but at the garage end you could instead break out the MWBC into two 20 amp circuits and put a GFCI on each one. I'm not sure which is the cheaper solution. I like the convenience of being able to reset the GFCI closer to where I'm working.

Bruce

No Bruce, you wrote this:

If the sub-panel is in an attached garage, the box/ground and the neutral bar stay connected.

This is 100% wrong had has never been permitted by the code.

As for whether they are connected in detached structures, I was correct in that in the older codes the connection MIGHT have been legal. I pointed out that current code indeed requires four wire connections (and keeping the neutrals seperate).

Hopefully last question to you folks. It seems that this is already a MWBC (albeit grounded/bonded incorrectly)? The main breaker panel feed (located in the house) to the garage is a double-pole (handle-tied) 60 amp breaker. There is only the one (shared) neutral plus the green wire shown in the photo. The question then is can you have 2 AF/GFCI (maybe 4 if desired) breakers in the garage panel and if yes do they need to be double-pole (handle-tied)? Our area is governed by the 2005 NEC.

No, it's not a branch circuit now at all, it's a feeder. If you put multiple breakers in the garage panel, you've not got a MWBC.

If you want a MWBC, then

1. Replace the feeding breaker with 20A.

2. Get rid of the breakers in the subpanel.

3. Splice the incoming wires to the the branch wiring in the garage.

2005 didn't require a handle tied breaker on a MWBC unless both sides fed a device on the same yoke. It's still a good idea even if not required.

Looks to me like that double 40amp breaker is servicing two separate circuits. Perhaps this should be two separate 20 amp breakers.

Maybe that big grey wire cut off at the top right is the old welder?

The grounds are all floating?

If these are all 120v 20amp circuits, you might find it cheaper to put a 120v 20a GFCI outlet at the beginning of each line, rather than try to cram in the breakers. Which will require 4 spots on your neutral bar.