[killermrob83]

Have a Kenmore gas range that was purchased in Oct '10. The ignitor went out on the front right burner. It is actually still working, but arcs through the side as if the ceramic is cracked. I thought maybe it was fouled or dirty so I removed it in an attempt to clean it up. Once reinstalled the spark is still insufficient to light the burner as it is a smaller spark (because of the shorter distance from the side of the ignitor to ground) than required. I have looked into purchasing a new ignitor and am thoroughly displeased with what these manufacturers are doing. It appears that one can no longer get just the ignitor, but you can purchase the ignitor as part of what they call an ignitor/orifice assembly for a bunch more money. Surely they know that ignitors fail and will need to be replaced, so why would they go about selling the ignitor as part of an assembly of parts that never go bad? GREED is the answer. Does anyone know of an ignitor that I could purchase that will fit in place of this particular one? How about a used appliance parts place where they would be willing to sell the ignitor alone? Is there maybe some kind of coating that I could apply to the ceramic of this bad ignitor that would prevent the spark from coming through the side? Thanks for your time and consideration. Rob BTW, the model number is 790.70502011. The part that is available as an assembly is 316536608.

[killermrob83]

Got the problem corrected; just not sure if it will be long term. Took an indelible marker and put a mark on the bad ignitor, approximately 180 degrees from where it appeared that the spark was leaking through the ceramic. Then swapped out right front ignitor (the bad one) with the left rear ignitor, since that burner hardly ever gets used. When I installed the bad ignitor in that rear burner, I changed the orientation such that the mark is facing the burner base, in hopes that the spark would now come from the tip and not out the side of the ceramic. Put it all back together and now all four burners light up immediately. If anyone should happen to have this same problem crop up, there is no need to swap ignitors. I only did so in case the change in ignitor orientation did not work.