It is always the case. The ground is a continous path to earth to protect users. The neutral is a continuous path to earth to carry load. Without a ground wire the hot can touch metal making it live and when you touch it you get a surprise. If it is grounded, it arks sparks and pops a breaker long before. If the metal of the case is touching neutral, you would know nothing of it until your neutral path to ground is broken for some reason at which time it will become live, if not grounded properly.

Omg...I have it all wired up now, checked the diagram like 10 times, but I am getting no light up. Wtf? Maybe after all this time I have a pooched ballast! Oooo, that would be fun! This isn't the first time I have wired a Tek up, so I should know what I'm doing!

Sunlight Supply you guys are a bunch of weiners!!! :p They packed the wrong diagram. I went on the Philips website, and following their diagram instead and VOILA! We have light! Now, where's the volt meter to check for zappage? :lol:

EDIT: OK, I posted this pretty much at the same time you found your solution. Good news & ignore info below... what kind of zappage are you intending to check with the voltmeter?

What brand of ballast is it? Model #, size of T5HOs & how many? I assume two lamps per ballast? Try other lamps if you have spares kicking around. Could be just a lamp. And if the ballasts have EOL (end of life) technology, when one lamp weakens, the ballast will generally shut both of them down.

I finally looked up Tek retrofit and the kits I found show them using Universal AccuStart electronic ballasts. If so, the wiring diagram looks fairly straightforward. My retrofit with Workhorse ballast requires jumper wires at the endcaps, but the diagram I found for the Universal ballast does not, much simpler actually.

Check to see if there will be a tingle (or more!) coming from ballasts and reflectors.

The Tek requires a jumper wire too, but the diagram had me wiring in those sockets on that end wrong.