Suburban oven, pilot light issue

[mikeandnora]

Hello! We have an almost new suburban oven (srna3 I think) and I have a bit of a confusing twist on other "pilot light won't stay lit" threads.

First, I am definitely following the manual on how to start. The problem is that no matter how long I hold down the knob after initial lighting it goes out when I stop pushing the knob in.

The twist is that I removed the rack and thermocouple from it's mount while keeping it connected to the oven and it lit up like it is supposed to. All I did was clean it with alcohol, and it lit up. But then, when I mounted it back in place it had the same problem.

So as u understand it, the thermocouple heats up and completes the loop so that the oven allows the flow of more propane. Does this sound like there is a problem with the thermocouple wire?

Happy streaming!

[Silver Goose]

Can you verify that the thermocouple is in the tip of the pilot flame? Your understanding is correct. The fundamental operation is: press in oven knob - this manually opens gas valve to allow you to light the pilot. Heat from pilot flame operates thermocouple and holds gas valve open to maintain gas flow to pilot.

If I understood your post. This worked when you had it somewhat disassembled. I would go back and make sure everything is in the right position. Others may have additional thoughts on this.

The wife always asks why with everything else so automated, lighting the oven pilot is just as it was 50 years ago?

[mikeandnora]

we wondered the same thing..

I found a reference somewhere that said the tip of the thermocouple should barely be in the flame. That is what it looks like to me. You can tell that the thermocouple is barely effecting the flame.

When I "took it apart" I did not change the position of the flame/thermocouple relative to eachother, just took out the rack and held it in position. That is what led me to believe it was a wire issue. I never adjusted the position of the thermocouple and yet it worked fine somehow. Also, there are not any remaining threads to move them closer together unless I was to bend some metal.

[mikeandnora]

Hey everyone! Great news. Although calling Suburban was absolutely worthless, I found another forum that was talking about the same issue.

Before you do anything invasive, pull off the plastic oven knob and do the same procedure without the knob on. Just like the other forum suggested, my knob hits the face of the oven and prevents the rotary control from being fully depressed.

There were suggestions about either,
1) pulling it off each time you need to start it up
2) adjusting position of face (I'm not sure how they did this)
3) shaving back side outer knob a bit so that it goes down far enough.