The previous homeowner did some electrical work to upgrade the dryer outlet to a 4-prong receptacle along with new 10-3 wiring. It was all brand new and looked copacetic.
I'm thinking of moving the dryer receptacle, so I traced the wire from the outlet back to the panel. I noticed a J-box along the way where the new cable converts from a 10-3, with ground, to a 10-3, without ground (Without ground must have been the original house wiring). The ground of the new cable was tied to the grounding post of the metal J-box, but nothing was grounding the box. The two hots and neutral are just tied and capped, but nothing is tied to the ground wire going to the dryer.
Essentially it is completely ignoring the ground. Should I bond the neutrals to the grounding wire? Should I continue to ignore the ground?
I know what you are all going to say… I should run a brand new 10-3 all the way back to the panel… but that stuff is EXPENSIVE.
Best Answer
What a fiasco. That was very bad work.
Unless the ungrounded 10/3 is running inside steel conduit all the way back to the panel, in which case the steel conduit is the ground, and the work is complete. However running cable inside conduit is the work of a dullard.
The good news is it sounds like the ungrounded 10-3 is quite old work, making it grandfathered. As such, you are allowed to retrofit a ground wire. It must be 10 AWG, can follow any practical route, and must go back to either