[Handyish]

I received a new double wall oven courtesy of my home warranty... They delivered the oven but would not install it as there was a plug and not a junction box to hard wire it. Being handy-ish, I went to Lowe's and bought a 3 prong plug for the 3 prong receptacle. I then took the 4 wires from the oven and attached them to the plug with the two hots on the outside, and the neutral (combined with the ground) to the top. I plugged it in and there was no lights on the oven. I checked power and there was power to the outlet and power to the oven.

Shortly after, an old vent stack from a previous gas oven slipped and touched the back of the wall oven causing the lights to come on in the oven. I thought maybe it had jiggled a loose wire, but after touching the vent stack and oven at the same time, I got a nice shock!

(I've read dozens of different blogs/forums on this and am still confused)

Any ideas?

[donf]

Good morning. Just checking in on you. It really sounds as if you are not properly grounded. Did you recheck all your connections yet?

[hfcarson]

consider doing exactly what the manufacturers installation instructions tell you do....
and these questions, uncertainty and potential dangers go away.

[Handyish]

Thanks donf... Rechecked all connections everything is solid. After that, attempted to remove the ground and install just using the neutral and two hots. I left the ground unattached to the plug (other end still attached to the oven) and still no luck. After checking with a tester, the ground wire near the plug was carrying some load. Seems like there must be a problem with the oven?

Thanks. I did exactly what the manufacturer suggested. There is something wrong... Thus my post to this forum.

[Handyish]

[Handyish]

Had the GE service person over today who was also very confused as to the behavior of the oven. He thought it might be a floating ground?

When the oven was not plugged in, the outlet read perfect... The hots were ~120 each and together were ~240. When the oven was plugged in, the neutral and a hot were coming up as 240.

[ma0641]

Hmm, no cable clamp.

[hfcarson]

This does sound like a "neutral" problem. Check (tighten) all the neutral conductors you can find from the oven back to the utility supply, junction box splices, neutral bars, panels, disconnects...also take a good look at the bare wire coming to your house from the utility pole / transformer.
Careful, this can be hazardous..

[donf]

I know this may be redundant, but were the connections (rewire) at the oven connected properly?

You should not be surprised about the voltage on the ground. Remember, the Neutral (Current carrying conductor) is connected to the Ground which then connects to the ground circuit on the receptacle.

Can you get us a pic of the rewired oven connection?

[Stratmando]

If you have 240 Between a Neutral and a Hot, sounds like Neutral is connected to a hot. Which means you likely would have 240 between 1 Hot and Neutral/Ground. And the other hot would have zero volts between Neutral and that hot. You need 120 volts from each hot to Neutral/Ground. Start at the Receptacle, Then Panel. Test receptacle's Voltage under Load.