TOPIC: tricky electrical installation

Fred when you get a chance finish up your profile so we know where your from.

In many homes in my area and in my house built in 1942 we have two wire and 1/2 steel flex. The flex grounds all the metal boxes. The two wires are cloth insulated and in my house very brittle as I found out when I changed all the plugs and switches out.My question is should we call the braided insulation out since we can see it in the main panel. I also found a tricky electrical installation, Some one changed the location of the porch light using the existing switch and since there was no neutral wire in the box they they just used the ground for the neutral to the light. Would this application compromise the whole electrical system ?

The nice thing about having a systems wired with conduit (and flex) is that the wires are not stapled in place so new single conductor wiire could be "easily" installed using the old wire as a "pull wire".  It is also possible that the conduit (if continuous) could serve as your ground conductor, but it would be best to check with the local authority on that.  On the second question, as I understand your description, it apprears to be incorrect, but I don't see how it could "compromise the entire electrical system".