Why does my dryer immediately shut off after pressing start?

I tested the ground in another outlet on another circuit breaker - touching the frame of the dryer and a probe in a separate grounding socket shows continuity, and I’ve tested voltages on the outlet and the pigtails on the drier to make sure the ground and each phase are wired up correctly.

I am stumped as to what else could cause this though

There might be a possibility of a BAD ground. IE, it is loose or corroded. That might cause a voltage to be present on the machine side of it. It might also be the feed wire is not #4 and therefore creating a voltage drop.

Maybe we need a little more definition here. "The metal frame is also energized when the start button is pressed (I was touching the back one time and as soon as I pressed start I got a lil shock)". You were touching the back of what? And where did you feel the shock? For the frame to be energized and you getting a shock by touching the BACK of the dryer, you would have to be standing on something conductive to ground. Either that or your shock came via the start button TO the frame. That might point to a problem in the start button mechanism.

I had a finger touching the back of the dryer, so where the plastic housing of the control panel meets the metal frame on the back of the dryer. When I pressed the start button, the metal on the back of the dryer gave me a very small shock on my fingers like touching a low voltage electric fence. This stopped immediately though when the dryer shut off, so the frame didn’t stay energized.

When you say feed wire not #4 causing a voltage drop, you mean the voltage at the outlet may be too low for the dryer to operate properly?

e.g. the 120V drops down to 110 by the time it gets to the outlet?

@ruggb

Confused. If the pigtail grd is connected to the frame and touching the frame & the button produced a shock, then button has to be the thing that is supplying the voltage UNLESS some other part of your body was contacting another ground. A 10V drop is pretty significant. I would verify all the connections. I did get carried away with #4. I think typically #10 is used for 30/40 amp connection. That is what the pigtails are. #10 wire is about 1Ω/1000 ft. @ 40A that would yield a 40V drop. However, it would be 1/2 that on the 120V side since it is the 240V heater drawing the 40A. So you would need 250 ft (total 500 ft of conductor up and back) of cable to drop 10V on the 120v line. It is possible there is 250' of cable but not likely. Or the connections from the panel to the transformer on the pole has a problem.

HOWEVER, that doesn't explain the voltage on the start button, or why it stops as soon as it starts without popping a circuit breaker. I'm starting to lean toward a bad control module.

I have pulled each plug out of the control module 1 at a time and started it up to try and isolate the problem - got the exact same issue after unplugging everything on the control board (besides the ones required to power up) so I am thinking it is probably the board also and not something downstream. Most other issues would manifest as the dryer not starting, not completely shutting itself off.

On the plugs required for startup I pulled them and tested each pin for a short to ground, no issues. I’ve also torn the whole thing apart and even taken the tape off the wire harness at this point to look for any bad insulation, I don’t know what the problem could be other than the board. 😞@ruggb