Magic Chef oven pilot won't light

[Big-B]

Hello fellow campers,

My wife and I have a Bighorn 5th wheel that we've had for about 6 years and for some reason the pilot won't light on the oven. It has always worked fine up until now.

I don't think it's the thermocouple as it will the burner will light and stay lit if I hold a lighter under the thermocouple and warm it up.

I have the knob set to pilot and am holding it in but there is no flame no matter how long I hold the knob in. Can't really use the oven this way even if I light the burner because once the oven comes up to temperature and the burner shuts off there is no pilot to light it back up.

Our previous 5er had a similar problem and I found that the knob wasn't going in far enough so I pulled it off and put a small piece of aluminum foil in the hole and put it back on and that solved the problem but that isn't the issue with this one.

Anybody got any ideas what might be going on here?

 

[danemayer]

Hi Big-B,

If I understand, you turn the knob to pilot and press/hold it in. You didn't mention using a flame to ignite the gas coming out of the pilot light. I think the way they work is that if you manually light the pilot and hold the knob in for 30-60 seconds, the thermocouple will warm up enough to keep the pilot lit. BUT, if you turn the knob to OFF, the pilot will go out and you have to start over manually. In the past, were you leaving the knob in the pilot position after using the oven?

 

[wdk450]

You need to get some sort of indicator (bubble juice, lint on a long small stick or rod?) in front of the pilot flame orfice to establish if you have gas flow there when the knob is pushed in. If no gas flow, then you need a new safety valve assembly.

Also, you probably want to get your primary propane system pressure regulator checked (or just replaced - they don't cost much) for 11 inches of water pressure value on the system.

 

[Big-B]

Thanks for the responses guys. I got it fixed. After I posted this I took a look at the gas valve and found the line that goes to the pilot. Unhooked it and lit it with the knob pushed in but it barely lit and then went out even when I was holding the knob fully in.
It has always had a very weak flame.

I had read that there is an adjustment for the flame and sure enough right opposite of the line is a small needle valve. I had to turn the gas off and disconnect a couple of lines and take the burner assembly loose from the oven cabinet to get at the needle valve to adjust it but after I did that it works fine.

Maybe this post can help someone else some day.

 

[wdk450]

Thanks for sharing your solution with the rest of us on the forum. You will never know how many people you might have helped!!