On 10/16/2011 7:46 PM, Steve Pope wrote:
> On Oct 16, 2:50 pm, > wrote:
>
>> The old wire coming out of the wall is split into three; two 120v and
>> one ground. The oven requires 4 wires.
>
> There are two possibilities here, neither of them particularly good news.
>
> (1) The three wires in the existing circuit are the two hot wires
> (red and black) and a ground wire, like you just stated. This is likely
> if the the third wire is bare copper. You can hook up your stove, but
> some features that reuiqre 120V will not work, such as lights, timers,
> and electronics. Possibly the stove won't function at all due to some
> missing electronic functionality.
>
> (2) The three wires in the existing circuit are the two hot wires
> and the neutral wire. So if you hook up the stove, it would function,
> but it would not be grounded, so you can't really do that.
>
> Either way you need a new circuit.
>
> There's actually a third possibility, which is that all four wires
> are there, but you cannot see the bare ground wire because it has
> been connected to the metal box with in some not-immediately-obvious-
> at-first-glance position. That would be good news.
>
> What I would fear is that you're in situation (1) and the circuit
> was intended for something like a water heater that does not have
> any 120V sections.

Thanks Steve. The lights, digital controls, timer all work. I've
tested the oven from preheat to fully heated, used two burners at the
same time, and everything is working. I hope I have possibility 3.

The original circuit already used to be used by an electric stove. It
didn't have the digital controls and lighted control panel, and it
didn't even have an interior light. But it was a normal old electric range.