More info -

I took the bottom of the oven lining off and turned on the oven again and watched and this time waited it out. After about 5 minutes the burner came on, strong at first but then died down to a wimpy little flame.

I turned on the broiler at the top of the oven to compare. There, the igniter seemed to glow more intensely and got that way more quickly. The broiler burner came on in about 20 -30 seconds.

OK, that rules out thermostat I think since the bottom burner did come on, just took awhile. Again, if this were a pilot light and thermocouple setup I would suspect that. There would seem to be 3 possibilities:

1, Igniter is working but the information that it is hot enough is not getting to the control valve - How exactly does that happen now? The thermocouple just used to transmit the heat of the pilot light itself to the valve. Does the igniter transmit some kind of signal to open the control valve? There does not appear to be any sensor or anything around it to do that. The only wiring asociated with it are the ones that power the igniter itself.

2. The igniter is not getting hot enough. Again, how does the control valve "know" this?

3. The control valve is slacking on the job. The same unit controls the broiler (although with a different outlet) and it works fine so I think not .

I can get a new igniter and try but I hate to waste money if that is not the cause.

Thank you Gene,

I have since done some Internet research and found the same information about the series wiring to the control valve. That's a pretty elegant solution.

I have an ammeter. What is the acceptable amperage to the control valve from the igniter?

I will get an igniter and install it in any case. It would just be nice to know the amperage for future problems should they arrise.

Thanks

Bill