Reviving the original Magic Chef T700 oven

[eubank]

Wish me luck for later today! The original Magic Chef oven has been crazy, wonky about holding a set temperature, so I figure it is the old thermostatic component. Which is, to put it mildly, "NLA" (a word that we lovers of vintage vehicles hate to see come up).

So shopping about, it looked like I could do a retrofit with a part from RobertShaw that I got from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It arrived yesterday, and I've had time only to open it up and do multiple comparions to the original part. It looks like it's going to fit pretty well. I hope. Just one or two small areas that may cause some headache.

So now I wish we didn't have other plans for today because I'd be out there trying to make this work.

And, by golly, it should. We even have refilled propane cylinders. Turns out that the rebuild I did some months ago on the water heater (new lines, new shut-off valve, new control unit) had a nice pinhole leak, and over the months, it pretty much emptied the propane. I kept on wondering what that rotten smell was.


Lynn

[markdoane]

Good Luck!

Did the same on my '59. Had to make a small adjustment for access to the pilot adjusting screw.

Otherwise it works great and we're happy to have a nice oven for making cookies.

[eubank]

So it's going to be tomorrow morning.

I'm thinking that this will all go a lot more smoothly if I simply pop the oven out and work on it in the shop. Other than fitting in a different part, I need to be very careful with the coiled probe, which is liquid filled and not exactly meant for blind, closed-space pushing and shoving.

It's not really hard to remove the oven (I keep telling myself now). The screws that hold it in place are easy to reach, and one of them is missing anyway. So the only more difficult thing is to disconnect the propane line. I seem to recall that there's a shut-off valve back there that I can simply turn off. Then just undo the propane fitting.


Lynn

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by eubank

I'm thinking that this will all go a lot more smoothly if I simply pop the oven out and work on it in the shop.

Dumb question— or at least dumb person asking a question— how easy is it going to be to get the oven out the Airstream door?

It may be even easier to pop the oven out of the cabinet but work on it in the middle of your Airstream's floor, rather than try to take it out of the Airstream entirely.

[SuzyHomemakr]

Remember, the old stoves and range tops don't have an auto-shutoff feature, and have been shaken and beat up for many years. Someone could brush up against a valve and fill the trailer with propane gas. Something could bump up against brittle metal underneath. I was happy to send mine to the dump.

[eubank]

It was no problem at all getting the oven out of the RV, with several inches to spare on either side.

At this point, I've finished the retrofit. The RobertShaw thermostatic valve was a pretty good fit, though I did need to raise it a little so make it fit better. Just involved using some little spacers between the valve and the body of the oven. Of course, I had to make a quick run to the hardware store for some different brass fittings to fit the existing small pipes to the new valve. Otherwise, I went through all connectors, undoing all of them, cleaning and adding a little dope to each. And cleaning off decades of dust from interior surfaces of the oven. Looks like it's going to be a go, ready to reinstall. No can do this afternoon, but tomorrow morning looks good.

So at this point, I've R&R'd the propane "plumbing" on the fridge (which isn't that old anyway), put in new control valve and propane lines with valve on the water heater (which is only 20 something years old), and now redone the thermostatic valve and associated fittings on the oven, ready to reinstall.

By golly, we may be in pretty good shape for the Thanksgiving rally next week!


Lynn

PS: Oh, and I was able to reuse the OEM thermostat dial on the outside, so it looks like it always did!

[Air4563]

We had a Magic Chef in our 1975 AS. The oven malfunctioned last spring and I was going to have it rebuilt. Then I found out that it could be done, but when I found out how much it would cost, I opted for a new unit. Not hard to retrofit and it works much better-both the oven and surface burners and about $200. less than the rebuild of the old one.

[eubank]

The older ovens, like the model 700 in our 1967 rig, are independent of the stove-top burners. Indeed, our oven is not even on the same side of the rig (oven is passenger side; stove top is driver side).

In any event, the job rebuild is done, and the oven is working better than it ever has since we've owned the rig.

The oven has two pilots, one for ignition and the other for safety with thermocouple; they lead to two different control units. Took a while to figure out what line went where and for what purpose. But it's all cleaned up now, and the fittings and covers are refit with a small amount of dope. I did find one problem area: I think somebody kind of shoved stuff hard into the broiler area below the burners. The ignition pilot was kind of bent off to the side such that the flame was not directly under the burner holes. All fixed now!


Lynn

[loechli]

I have a 1972 with the Magic Chef wall oven Model L T932-2SV-B2
has anyone tried this thermostat on my vintage wall oven, we really like having a lp wall oven and have not found any reasonable replacement options. Our cooktop works fine, and I don't want to reconfig the kitchen.

Steve

Originally Posted by eubank

The older ovens, like the model 700 in our 1967 rig, are independent of the stove-top burners. Indeed, our oven is not even on the same side of the rig (oven is passenger side; stove top is driver side).

In any event, the job rebuild is done, and the oven is working better than it ever has since we've owned the rig.

The oven has two pilots, one for ignition and the other for safety with thermocouple; they lead to two different control units. Took a while to figure out what line went where and for what purpose. But it's all cleaned up now, and the fittings and covers are refit with a small amount of dope. I did find one problem area: I think somebody kind of shoved stuff hard into the broiler area below the burners. The ignition pilot was kind of bent off to the side such that the flame was not directly under the burner holes. All fixed now!


Lynn

[Trnpk Crsr]

[QUOTE=Protagonist;2035425]Dumb question— or at least dumb person asking a question— how easy is it going to be to get the oven out the Airstream door?

I overheard an Airstream service tech tell my father in 1975 that everything in the Airstream could pass thru the door.