Electrical – Can Ground Attached to Neutral Fool a Receptacle Tester?

Hot1 and Neutral1 are the feed from the panel. Hot2 and Neutral2 feed the next receptacle in the chain.

If you connect Hot1 and Neutral1 to the receptacle, this receptacle will work. If you also connect Hot2 and Neutral2 to the receptacle, all the devices downstream will also work.

Depending on the new receptacle you're installing, you should wire it the same as the old receptacle.

Just remember that the "black" ungrounded (hot) conductors should be attached to the brass colored screws, and the "white" grounded (neutral) conductors should attach to the silver colored screws.

As for the ground. It's odd that there's only one grounding wire. Where does it come from, one of the cables, the box, somewhere else? In any case, the bare grounding conductor should not be connected to the grounded (neutral) conductor.

The dryer itself is the only load that is needed. Open the panel where the cord connects to the dryer and try to turn it on and measure the voltages from both legs to the ground/neutral and across the hot leads if the voltage drops out you will be able to pinpoint the loss with any meter. You may need to have someone push the start button while taking the measurements.