stupid ac wiring question

cleverlyj

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so i'm putting a new line plug on my satan's hollow, as the old one had a missing ground pin and it was shocking me. anyways, the line cord has the green ground wire, but the black and white have no insulation that i can see differentiating which is hot and which is neutral, so i can't tell which is which. being that it is ac, is this a big deal? can either be in either spot? or should i just splurge on a new line cord?
 
so i'm putting a new line plug on my satan's hollow, as the old one had a missing ground pin and it was shocking me. anyways, the line cord has the green ground wire, but the black and white have no insulation that i can see differentiating which is hot and which is neutral, so i can't tell which is which. being that it is ac, is this a big deal? can either be in either spot? or should i just splurge on a new line cord?

Does the line cord have any ridges on on side and smooth on the other? We had a saying "ridged is right, right is white". Shouldn't matter though since the new plug should have color coding - silver - white wire and brass color - black wire and a green ground terminal.
 
As the plug goes into the wall outlet...
Black is on the right
White is on the left
Ground prong is on the bottom

make sense?
 
And yes it can matter if the hot and neutral are reversed as some things don't handle that.

If the line cord shows any bare spots then I would replace it.

Wish I could edit my posts...
 
i understand all that, but the issue is that i cut the original plug off and the only insulated wire is the ground. there is no black or white insulation for me to tell which is which.

pseeds - there is one side that is ridged where the other side is smooth, so would that indicate the ridged is white like you said?
 
i understand all that, but the issue is that i cut the original plug off and the only insulated wire is the ground. there is no black or white insulation for me to tell which is which.

pseeds - there is one side that is ridged where the other side is smooth, so would that indicate the ridged is white like you said?

Yes. That is how I have always wired those type of cords. The ridged side wire goes to the silver (white) terminal of the plug.
 
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