At 03:14 PM 7/26/2008, Thomas Jefferson Kitts wrote...

>2) When I complete a circuit using the insulated wire leaving the
>plastic connectors and leading to the 120v heater rod, and touch the
>probe to the same colored wire coming back into the plastic coupler, I
>get an identical voltage reading. (I'm bypassing the heater rod
>altogether.)

When you say "bypassing," I assume you mean that the meter leads are
connected to each of the two wires going to the heater rod. By
measuring volts there, you have confirmed that voltage is getting to
the heater.

But that isn't enough - the heater may be burned out. You need to
remove ALL AC power, switches off, etc. Then test the ohms through the
heater rod. If it shows infinite, or very high, it's burned out. If
it's good, it will definitely be under 1000 ohms (probably more like
100).