Removing spark igniter electrode

Oven/Range/Cooktop Repair
1

When trying to light 2 of the burners on my GE JGBP36BEL2BB gas range, the igniters click but the burners don’t flame up. In order to troubleshoot (to see if we maybe need to replace the spark electrodes or if we need to do something else), we need to get inside.

We were able to get the burner caps and burner heads off (easy part!), and unscrewed the 3 small screws under each in an attempt to remove the cooktop, but the top burner igniter/spark electrodes are causing a problem. How do we remove these electrodes? They don’t fit into the holes for us to push them into the cooktop, and they don’t just slide out as some videos seem to show. The bottom of each is in a holder/clip of some sort.

Is there a release on that holder in order to let them pull out of the cooktop?

Thanks!

2

After reading this thread: http://forum.appliancepartspros.com/oven-repair-including-ranges-cooktops/7126-replacing-electrode-spark-igniter.html

I wonder if we really need to remove the cooktop (and then if we don’t, if we even need to remove the electrodes)? The ceramic parts don’t seem cracked or anything. Maybe we should be opening the back and checking out/possibly replacing the spark module instead?

From the back panel, could we swap anything to test the electrodes (swap one of the good ones with one of the bad ones) to confirm?

Thanks again for any input/direction