Replacing the "guts" of a load center

[dgman]

I have an old Challenger load center that is now being used as a subpanel (the supply from the power company and main breakers are now in box at the back of the house.) Both busbars work but I can only put breakers down the right side of the panel as the left side won't secure the breakers anymore. I want to replace the busbars but I'd rather not replace the box as it is in a stuccoed wall.
Is there anything wrong (safety or codes) with just taking the busbars from say a new Square D or Cutler-Hammer center and putting them in the old box (assuming of course they fit)?
Thanks.
Don

[JGrout]

if you are going to replace the guts with the guts of a new box just replace the entire box.

It is only a minor thing to kill the power at the new load center
JMO

Joe

[Robert Adams]

Challanger aka Zinsco was a heavily recalled panel because the breakers expanded and contracted and caused poor connections at the bar. Have seen quite a few that had a nice blue glow coming from the buss bar.

You can put new guts into an old box assuming it all fits etc. I don't like doing it unless it's the same brand though as he new guts often drop right in .Swapping the whole box often leads to allot of wall repair unless it's an exterior panel.

[Mr_Mike]

Your fear of stucco exceeds your fear of fire?

I'm replacing the panel. It's easy to get a respectable color match with stucco. It will have to weather in though.

[blackhat]

I can't see a bar swap maintaining the certification of either.

[crokett™]

blackhat said:

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I can't see a bar swap maintaining the certification of either.

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Here, it won't. At the old house I asked about this, I wanted to upgrade my 30 year old 6 slot panel with guts that included a main breaker (the original panel didn't have one). Inspector said no. I ended up pulling the guts out of that old panel and extending the circuits to a new panel. If the OP doesn't want to do stucco work he could possibly install a surface mount new panel and extend the circuits.

[dgman]

Thanks for the reply's. I like Crokett's idea of mounting a new box and extending the circuits. Any problem with mounting the new box over the old one and feeding the wires in from the back side?
Also, is there any code violation about a surface mounted box on the exterior of a house?

[crokett™]

No code violations on surface mount, so long at is done correctly and you use a loadcenter designed for it (and exterior rated). At my old house, that's how both boxes (original and new) were done. Surface mount on brick. As to mounting the new directly over the old, talk to your local inspector. Here, the guts had to be ripped out of the old box, and a blank of some sort put over the holes in the original faceplate. I was allowed to just screw a piece of sheet metal over where the breakers would have gone.

Here's my old house after the work was complete waiting on the PoCo to set the meter. New panel is on the left. I did all the work myself. I couldn't simply replace the old panel, the heat pump was set too close and it would have cost several hundred to move, plus there was't really a convenient spot to move it to. I extended 6 circuits to the new panel and rewired the main from the meter base to the new panel.

[Just_Dave]

Simple answer yes.

If you were to put anything other than the original brand same component you would be voiding the UL Listing. This would open up a whole new can of worms if there was ever a problem.

[Bob10]

I would bet manslaughter charges if someone were to get dead as a result