[rotten]

Shortly before Thanksgiving (2 months ago) we noticed that our gas oven was no longer regulating itself to the temperature we had set. It was running anywhere from a little, to a lot cold.

No problem, we obtained an oven thermometer and manually adjusted the temperature. It was a pain, but the holidays were on us and we just didn't have time to deal with it.

A couple weeks ago during a power outage, our generator malfunctioned and burned out a number of electronic devices in our house. One of the things that was "cooked" was the power supply module for our stove. (the spark module still worked fine)

I replaced the power supply module over the weekend. The clock, and all of the control functions seem to be fine. The door latches in self-cleaning mode, and so on.

However, now our oven won't come up to temperature at all. Examining this a little closer I could see that after setting the "bake" (or any of the other oven modes including auto-clean) mode, the spark would zap-zap-zap, and the burner would come on.

After 2 or 3 seconds I could hear the solenoid shutting off, and the gas shuts off, and the flame goes out.

I concluded the most probable faulty component was one of the thermocouples, and decided to replace both of them.

The resistance on the thermocouples was within the error margins of my multimeter. (One read 1080 ohms, and the other 1085.) I tried disconnecting them, and the oven gave me an "open thermostat" error code.

[ I couldn't consult this forum because I only had a Linux system available to me and the forum registration form doesn't work with firefox on Linux. ]
Anyway, both thermocouples arrived today and I replaced them. Unfortunately the symptoms have not changed.

Something else is telling the oven to shut the gas off, I'm not sure why. All of the top burners work fine, and they all blast out pretty well when they are all set to high.

I tried turning the gas off and back on again. That didn't really do anything.

Any suggestions as to what else might cause this?

[Gene]

You did not have to replace the temperature sensors (you called it "thermocouple" or "thermostat").

The normal resistance at the room temperature suppose to be about 1100 Ohms, which is pretty close to readings you've got.

Most likely the problem with your oven is a bad spark module (#5 on the control panel break down diagram).

- The part number for the spark module is AP3672576

Here are the break down diagrams for the Whirlpool range Model GS470LEKQ0

Gene.

[rotten]

So the spark module is actually controlling the valve solenoids too? All of the "sparks" seem to work. I'll order the part, but I wanted to clarify my understanding of what this module does. I thought all it did was deliver a spark when requested by the controller. Now I see it does a bit more...


Also, since I have two extra temperature sensors now, where can I learn more about them? They are thermocouples, but what kind? Type 'K'? Maybe I could use them for some other project or sell them on ******** or something.

(I'm assuming because I opened and installed them, I can't return them.)


Thank you for your help!

[Gene]

The oven igniter works as a flame sensor too and it provides a feed back to the spark module.

If the spark module does not read the right signal, it stops sparking and shuts off the gas by turning the power to the proper solenoid off.

Gene.

[rotten]

Very interesting! Thanks!