Jesseburke88
New Member
so long story short my dryer stopped heating... I replaced everything inside thinking that was the issue. After that failed “shame on me for thinking it would be a simple fix” I realized the three prong outlet was only getting 110 on one side. Went to the breaker box and noticed it was one of the last breakers I didn’t replace. (The breakers when I moved in had rust on the screws holding in the wires so I’ve been changing them) Changed it out for a new 30 amp and followed the line. Found a junction box and opened it up to find everything fried. All the wires were melted. Turns out the 8 gauge is aluminum wire that goes to 10/3 copper. It’s connected with wire nuts then goes to a 3 prong outlet. So I switched it to a four prong plug and new 10/3 wire up until the box. My question now is if I use the old 8/3 aluminum wire how to I connect it to the 10/3?. The dryer and box are about 70ft apart. If it’s safe to connect the two why would the original installer put the ground and neutral wire to the same bar in the circuit box? Shouldn’t the ground be on the ground bar and the neutral on the neutral?. Any help at all would be appreciated. After I found the wires melted in the box I’m now deathly scared of a fire. Thank you for any help!