Yeah the neutral on the dryer was loose, but the neutral lead of the 120V motor was bonded to the frame of the dryer, since the heating elements are 240V somehow the 120V dryer motor was able to run without a neutral. It was a mystery to me, perhaps one of the people smarter than me on here can explain it.
Years back my boss measured about 5 amps flowing on a gas pipe, it was a fancy combo gas / electric range on one of those special old 3-wire circuits and the neutral pin was broke off and stuck in the receptacle, so the neutral path for the range was via the gas pipe.
