Weak ignition • Jenn-Air FCG20510 gas range

[slantsixdan]

Model FCG-20510. Serial 13350069QD. Production date 3/96. Weak or no spark regardless of which burner knob is turned to "Light". The spark module is not snapping as loudly as it ought to; in fact it's gone very quiet. It still makes the rhythmic snapping sound, but it's as if somebody wrapped it in insulation, put it in a box, and put that in another insulated box. Generally I get one loud snap and then the rest of them are quiet. I thought it might be a short to ground in one or more burners, so I cleaned them all (soaked in denatured alcohol then shook them out, scraped the electrodes and adjacent ground areas). That seemed to help briefly, but less than a day later the weak/no spark condition returned. I had four new burner assemblies waiting for a rainy day, so I put them in. No change. Didn't notice any apparent wire damage, and all terminals are clean and tight.

Is my "time for a new spark module" guess any good?

[RegUS_PatOff]

[user=1736]slantsixdan[/user] wrote:

..Is my "time for a new spark module" guess any good?

sounds like it is ..relatively inexpensive ..

click on picture

[slantsixdan]

Yup, it was the spark module. Damnuisance to replace it! I have no problem with the new module being different from the old module; they provided a new bracket and so that's fine (even if the new bracket is much flimsier than the original). What I have a problem with is the new module having 0.187" output terminals vs. the original module's 0.110" terminals, and the new 0.187" female terminals being supplied in pathetic lousy quality guaranteed to break if you stare at them extra-hard, and only in the exact quantity needed if none of them break. C'mon. Any ol' Joe Schmoe can buy much better quality terminals of this type for about 0.2¢ apiece in quantity of a hundred; they'd surely cost Maytag less than half of that in commercial supply quantities, and I'd've been happy to pay 100x markup on them (sixty cents for six of 'em in the kit).

I especially like how they call it an ignition module "upgrade" kit. Thpth.

At least the stove is once again sparking.