DIYbanter - View Single Post - Rewire oven plug 3 to 4 wire, new home, plug it in and get sparks

wrote:
I never claimed to be an electrician, but we are moving into our newly
built home and (by code) the electrician put in a 4 wire connector for
the range. I bought a 4 wire cable and rewired the oven (there we
instructions on the back of the oven). I tried plugging it in and
sparks and a pop occurred on the back panel of the oven. Probably
fried the oven, but that's another matter. Pulled off the oven panel
and the wiring looks correct. They have a diagram where each color
wire goes, an I have them installed in the correct place and tightened
securely. The only thing I am not sure of is I didn't check for a
bridge connection between the white wire and the green wire (ground)
which I read should be removed in a 4 wire configuration to meet code
(although I doubt it is causing the sparks). Am I complete idiot here,
or could the electrictian have messed up the wiring. Is there a way I
can test it or since the breaker is off, pop the wall cover and make
sure the leads are connected in the wall correctly?
Thanks.

Greetings,

a) are you SURE that you didn't hear the sparks because you introduced
a short somewhere? Did you somehow hook up one of the hot wires where
a ground or neutral should have been?

b) if you think the original electrician is to blame use a $3 volt
meter to ensure that each plug on the 4 prong outlet has the right
voltage (240 volts between the two hot plugs, low resistance between
neutral and ground, etc)

Hope this helps,
William