Help please Electric range not getting power

Have a 3 wire 220 outlet, where a small range was plugged in and worked fine. Gave that away when gifted a full size range. Plugged in the used range and it wont light up the clock nor any stove functions. Well the stove had been dropped while moving so decided it must have broken something internal to the stove. Gave up and bought a new range, plugged that one in and had the same result. Ugh!
So I have played around with some meters and here is what I have for someone to hopefully explain my problem and solution.
On the pig tail when plugged into the 220 outlet I detect
the two outside wires give me 220
the center and the right outside give me nothing or 0
the center and the left outside give me nothing or 0

when plugged into 220 outlet and connected to the stove (left outside to Red, center to white,right outside to black and nothing connected to green stove ground screw ) I detect
Red and white shows 220
Black and white shows nothing or 0
Red and black show 220

If I go red to ground I detect 220
and white to ground I detect nothing or 0
and Black to ground I detect nothing or zero

so some how it seems the black is dead and the red is grabbing both 110 feeds ie 220

So is my outlet messed up or could it be the breaker which is a doubled up breaker?

And so is the stove finding no power on the black so it therefore just wont function??
Thanks,
Miker

 

This is what it should be.. between/across red and black = 240V, red or black to white(neutral/ground) =120V. Neutral should be bonded to ground (stove frame) on old style 3 prong 120/240V plug. Red should be connected to one side of double pole breaker and black to the other side. White connected to neutral bar in panel.

 

You are measuring incorrectly and are missing the neutral (/ground).

This is a correct measurement but missing neutral.

How can the outside terminals show you 240v (first measurement) and and then change to one outside terminal and the center one in the second measurement ?

 

I don't know how? My stove has 3 connectors for the 3 prong Flat wire pigtail and it has also has a separate green grounding screw. I connected the left to the left the center to the center and the right to the right. from the pigtail to the stove. The green ground screw lower down and away from the stove conect bar has nothing connected to it.

My assumption (maybe wrong ) is that the green ground screw is only if using a 4 wire pigtail.
Mike aka Zippy

 

There needs to be a bonding connection from the center terminal to that green screw.
It should be supplied there.

Your range should have come with a wiring guide where it explains a three wire connection.

Doubled up breaker ? That sounds like another issue.

 

To clarify when I plugged the pigtail into 220 outlet I tested the combinations of wires and got results directly to the end of the pigtail without it being connected to anything to (in my mind) tell me what that outlet was sending. So this is 1.5 hours away and I will not be able to recheck again but I cannot understand why I would not see 110 doing the center wire to either left or right. At least in my mind the center wire should return the 110 coming from either side.

 

Yes..... correct.... BUT..... your center pin or supply wire is missing. Since it's three wire "cable"..... I'd imagine it's an old aluminum cable with red, black and stranded bare. You are missing the stranded/bare. There could be a problem at the panel, at a splice or in the receptacle.

 

Pjmax, the pigtail is a new grey cord bought at lowes or home depot, I'll test the cord alone to ensure no short and continuity next time out to the cottage. I'll also take the wall outlet apart and see if I can see any short, loose or weak connections, and if inserting the pigtail plug into it disturbs the connection somehow. that will be at least a week from now as I'm traveling now.
You also mentioned the double breaker...so on that to try to clarify the stove circuit the breaker in the box is either two single breakers with the reset throw connected across both the breakers ...or it is a single double wide breaker. I think it is the former but again will need to recheck on next visit. I will also take pics of everything.

A B C Left wire Center Wire Right wire ( end of Pigtale )

AB = 0 volts
BC = 0 volts
AC = 220 volts

So if AB and BC should show 110 but show 0 what does that tell me ??
Is it that the outlet is wired wrong ?
Is it that the breaker is wired wrong??
Is it that the breaker is bad/faulty?
Your going to tell me it could be any of those 3 possibilities right ( LOL) . So how should the out let be assembled I would think it to be red hot to top left, other red hot to top right, and both blacks to bottom.
red red simulation the outlet

blk-blk

 

A and C are the hot legs. B is the neutral.
Since you have 240v (not 220) between the two hot legs..... the breaker is on and ok.
Since you measure 0v between either hot leg and neutral....... there is no neutral.

 

OK so what does that mean no neutral ( B ) ? What do I do? If I take the outlet apart will I see and be able to fix?

The cottage is old and not sure what the wire that feed the outlet is yet. I do know that all the standard outlets are two prong so I have adapters to plug in say a lamp or radio etc. I suspect this outlet might be fed by two cables versus just one but don't know that yet till next visit.

So just trying to get advice and ideas to try next time down there.

Thanks for all your time and patients.
Zippy

 

If it was an old 220v range. It may have run on 240v just fine. It would not have needed the third wire/neutral.
The first thing you need to do is to verify the type of cables and how many conductors.
Can't do much until that's known.