Wiring for three prong power supply cord

On a 4-prong power cord you have 2 hot wires, one neutral wire, and one ground wire. On a three prong cord, you have 2 hot wires and one neutral/ground wire. The difference is the on four prong the neutral wire goes to electrical neutral bus in the breaker panel and the ground wire goes to the ground bus in the breaker panel. Since the neutral and ground buses, although separate, both go to physical ground, on a three-wire setup, you are just putting the neutral and ground wire together, Most dryers actually have a place at the pigtail connection to do just that.

Ok this is how you will wire the three prong to the dryer.

You have 2 wires that are gold/brass in color, those are the hot wires.
You have 1 wire that is crome/silver in color, that is the neutral

On back of fryer where you wire it you put the wires on like this right to left Gold/brass hot, silver/nuetral, then the other hot wire.

On back of dryer you will have screws from right to left this color gold/brass, silver/crome, then gold/brass again.

If you do have a 4 wire cord the extra wire is ground and you screw that to the machine body.

These two pictures illustrate the power wiring on a the terminal of an electric dryer. The one on top is the old-style three-wire configuration. Most people have this type in their homes. New code changes, though, require that dryers now have a four-wire cord, shown on the bottom.
Besides the number of wires in each cord, there are two important things to notice. First, in the four-wire configuration, notice that the dryer's grounding strap is folded back on itself. The whole point of the four-wire cord is to separate the ground from the neutral. The green wire (the "new" extra wire in the four-wire cord) is attached to the dryer cabinet. In the three-wire configuration, the grounding strap is left intact and the neutral and ground are tied together.


Sure hope this helps you find a resolution to your delimma! Best wishes.

The three wire goes on the electrical block on the back of your dryer just like the cord is made. If you look at the cord, it's made flat (Most 3 wire cord are made flat, Some are not) The wire in the middle goes in the middle of the block. The two wires to the outside go to the outside of the block. It makes do difference which wire goes on which side as long as the outside wires go to the outside.
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These two pictures illustrate the power wiring on a the terminal of an electric dryer. The one on top is the old-style three-wire configuration. Most people have this type in their homes. New code changes, though, require that dryers now have a four-wire cord, shown on the bottom.
Besides the number of wires in each cord, there are two important things to notice. First, in the four-wire configuration, notice that the dryer's grounding strap is folded back on itself. The whole point of the four-wire cord is to separate the ground from the neutral. The green wire (the "new" extra wire in the four-wire cord) is attached to the dryer cabinet. In the three-wire configuration, the grounding strap is left intact and the neutral and ground are tied together.


Sure hope this helps you find a resolution to your delimma! Best wishes.

Wiring in a new power cord for your electric dryer? Upgrading your electric dryer outlet from the old three-prong to the new four-prong outlet? Well, grab hold of those two large lumps at the base of your spinal cord and let's romp through the wild and wacky world of dryer cords and outlets.

These two pictures illustrate the power wiring on a the terminal of an electric dryer. The one to the left here is the old-style three-wire configuration. Most people have this type in their homes. New code changes, though, require that dryers now have a four-wire cord, shown to the right. These are just just thumbnail pictures that you can click for a larger view. But I'll bet you already figured that out, didn't you?
Besides the number of wires in each cord, there are two important things to notice. First, in the four-wire configuration, notice that the dryer's grounding strap is folded back on itself. The whole point of the four-wire cord is to separate the ground from the neutral. The green wire (the "new" extra wire in the four-wire cord) is attached to the dryer cabinet. In the three-wire configuration, the grounding strap is left intact and the neutral and ground are tied together.
If you need to re-wire the outlet, these pictures will explain the anatomy of the three-prong (left) and four-prong (right) outlets. Once again, these pictures are just thumbnails--click 'em for a larger view.

Sure hope this helps you find a resolution to your delimma! Best wishes.

The following link explains how to install a power cord for your appliance:

http://www.fixya.com/support/r793520-3_prong_4_prong_power_cord_conversion

Refer to the section that discusses converting from a 4-prong to a 3-prong power cord.

If you have questions, let me know. I hope this helps you.

PS The GREEN wire is ground and gets grounded to the appliance frame.

you need to change your outlet

Changing from 3 to 4 wire hookup on a electric dryer:
Power cord help for 3 & 4 prong dryer cords 
This is an example of a three wire connection dryer cord hookup. Notice that there is a ground strap connected from the common center terminal to the frame of the terminal block. Place the center wire of the cord on the center terminal [ one with the ground ******** it ] and the other two wires will be placed on the outer terminals and it doesn't matter which wire goes right or left. Get the center wire of the cord right and you are in business. 
This is an example of the 4 wire dryer cord hookup. Notice that the ground strap has been removed from the terminal block frame and folded back onto the center terminal for storage. You can see the colors of the other hookups. TIP: White always to the middle.

Is the receptacle in the wall a four prong or three prong. You will have to match the cord on the dryer to the wall recepticle. If the wall is four prong the dryer cord has to be a four prong. The green wire with the yellow line, that is on the end of the dryer cord, is a cabinet ground and should be attached to the cabinet of the dryer and making good contact. The other three wires on the end of the dyrer cord attach to the terminal block.