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Moved and went from 3 prong to 4 prong but dryer will only run if the green is touching neutral have tried putting green in the spot of previous ground stap and dryer does nothing

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    The dryer doesn’t care if the ground is connected (though you should). It does need neutral and it sounds like the neutral isn’t connected and your test is using ground in place of neutral.
    – DoxyLover
    Mar 3 at 5:01
  • see this cimg1.ibsrv.net/cimg/www.doityourself.com/660x300_85/5/…
    – asinine
    Mar 3 at 7:08
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    It would be great if you would edit your question to include the wiring panel of the dryer as you have it now. In words, you can describe how it was before you made any changes.
    – FreeMan
    Mar 3 at 16:42
  • I’m not at location but this is what it looked like i.stack.imgur.com/5kUG8.jpg. And if I put green on white the dryer would work but putting green n designated spot nothing
    – angelia york
    Mar 3 at 23:05

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Not clear from the question exactly where the problem is, so here is an overall troubleshooting strategy:

Receptacle

Use a multimeter (if you don't have one, borrow or buy one - it will come in handy plenty of times) to test it. The two straight sockets are hot, the small socket is ground and the "L" is neutral. You should have either ~ 208V or ~ 240V between the two hots, ~ 120V between each hot and neutral, ~ 120V between each hot and ground and 0V between neutral and ground. If any of these value are significantly different, STOP and post more details. If all of these are good then the receptacle is nominally OK. (It could still be wired incorrectly, but in a way that is non-obvious and that wouldn't prevent the dryer from running.)

Cord/Plug

The cord is normally connected to the dryer with colored wires with lugs connected to screws. Something like this image from Home Depot:

Dryer connection

Using your multimeter, check resistance between each prong of the plug and each wire and the metal dryer cabinet. You should have continuity between:

  • One of the hot prongs and black
  • The other hot prong and red
  • Neutral prong and white
  • Ground prong and green
  • Ground prong and dryer cabinet

If any of those are not showing continuity/very low resistance then check the relevant screw connection.

If anything else shows continuity/very low resistance then you have a problem to be fixed. If that's the case, I would next totally disconnect the power cord from the dryer and check continuity (except, of course ground prong to dryer cabinet) to make sure you have a good power cord/plug. Assuming the cord/plug is itself OK then if you have continuity between neutral and ground then the ground strap is still in place and needs to be removed.

And if all of that doesn't get the problem figured out/fixed, post more details.

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