240 volt wiring question...help please

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone can help me out. I'm connecting a 240 volt receptacle for my electric range. There was an older, but identicle receptacle already in place but it was removed by our former handy man (long story). I have found that the wiring doesn't have a dedicated set of neutral wires. There's a set of copper in the black casing and a set in red casing, but the ground wires seem to just wrap around the inner insulation. They are not bunched so that I can connect to the ground in the receptacle. This is an old house (1947) and I'm not sure how old the electrical work is. Should I just leave these wires and connect the to-be live wires to receptacle?

While this wiring is old, to repeat, there is black casing around one set, which is to be connected to the left terminal, and red casing that is to be connected to the right terminal. The neutral wires are supposed to be connetced to the bottom terminal, but that's where I'm having the problem. This picture below is what it's supposed to look like.
http://z.about.com/d/electrical/1/0/t/2/-/-/wired- range-outlet-300.jpg

Unfortunately, I'm lacking the white cased copper wires as shown above and just have loose wires coming out of the main cable. And they aren't bunched together, rather they're coming out on top, bottom, the sides, etc.



Thanks in advance

i would not use that wiring, replace with new.

Sounds like service cable was used. It is the kind of cable used to bring electrical service to the house and from the meter to the breaker box. I'm not sure whether that would be code compliant for a range, but it will work safely if the cable is of at least the right gauge. Since you didn't provide a picture of the actual cable you're using, I can't speak to that. Check the Internet for the correct gauge cable for the amperage of your range. It probably should be around 8 gauge with a 50 or 60 amp breaker. Anyway, connect the black wire (120v) to one terminal, the red (120V) to the other (120+120=240), and twist the neutrals together and connect them to the neutral lug, where the white one is on your picture.

Make sure they are connected the same way in your breaker box before you connect them, and that you have the proper size cable and breaker for your range. The red and black should run to the breaker terminals and the neutral should be twisted together and connected to the common bar where all the white wires are connected. You will probably not find a large enough hole for the neutral cable on the common bar, so you may have to split it among two or three holes, which, again, works safely, but may not be code compliant.

If you can run a new cable without having to do major surgery, I would recommend you get the proper cable and run a new line. Home Depot, Lowes, or any other decent hardware store carries it. They will probably have someone knowledgeable enough to help you select the right cable for the job.

Be careful handling electricity.

looking at the photo the is wired correct.red and black is hot white is neutral.the other missing wire seen most of the time usally is a green wire plug case to machine case connect to the same place as white wires in breaker box. take a meter read across red and black it should be 220v. red and white should be 110v / black and white should 110v.