March 31, 2023 - Friday

My big news today is I got the stove working (mostly)!  The problem, as mentioned before, was that the stove would not stay lit after warming up.  Normally you would hold the burner knob in until the thermocouple warmed up enough to generate a current to activate a solenoid valve.  This kept fuel flowing to the burner.  If the flame blew out, the thermocouple cooled, the electric current stopped and the burner turned off.  Overall, a clever safety device. 

In my case, the only way to keep the stove running was to keep holding the knob in by hand as long as you were cooking.   Not exactly convenient...  So I set about getting the stove opened up to sort the problem out.   The screws were all corroded, so I drilled them out.  This took some time.  Once apart, I could see corrosion around the thermocouples.  

Each thermocouple has a wire that runs to the solenoid.   This powers the solenoid when the unit gets hot.  To complete this circuit, the thermocouple has to be grounded.  A quick test with my meter confirmed the corrosion was preventing a reliable ground.  It was pretty easy to disassemble the units, then sand and scrape them and put things back together.   My initial tests looked good, so I put the stove back together.   Two of the burners worked great.  One still failed to stay lit.  I called it a day for this project.  I'll work on it again tomorrow. 

Next, I removed the two blocks at the base of the mast in preparation for installing the two new ones.  This went quickly.  After some cleaning/prep, I started to cut a backing plate from the 1/4" aluminum I bought for this purpose.   A corroded hachsaw stymied that effort, so i called it a day.  Will get back to it tomorrow...

Comments

  1. ShellyApril 1, 2023 at 2:44 PM

    Glad you got the stove working! Hoping ALL burners by now. The unending boat repairs. To truly be a happy captain, one must fully subscribe to the notion about no better time can be spent than messing around on boats. ;-)' Sending you smooth progress from here on Brian!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brian MillerApril 2, 2023 at 8:30 AM

      Thanks for the encouragement! Yes, definitely messing around here. I am getting anxious for the marina messing around to be replaced with messing around under sail!

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