Geeze, those words can be a challenge....

Was cooking supper on Saturday night, stovetop. Noticed the oven control dial was sitting strangely cocked. It moved back to flush with a sick, mushy feeling. Gently removing the dial, I found the pot metal control shaft split lengthwise nearly its whole lenght, and a crack perpendicular to the shaft, near its base, where the knob retention spring seats. Bugger.

Being less than cash-flush of late, replacing the control or indeed the oven was not on my want list. I decided I'd remove the control and see if I could drill out the shaft and bond the remains back together.

I disassembled the stove far more than necessary. Only needed to remove 2 screws to open the controls, but didn't figure that out till a dozen or more were out. Oh well. T'is the way.

Took a photo of the wiring before unplugging everything. Removed the control and capillary tube, and went down to the basement for post-mortem. The shaft had indeed sheared and split, maybe 1/8" from the base where it enters the control.

I removed the clip holding the contact cover, then the 4 screws that hold the unit together. Paid close attention to the order of sheet metal bits that go around the shaft and control the broil element behavior. Removed the contact block. Left in my hand was the front control plate, with broken shaft protruding, and on the back side, the sensing element with the capillary tube attached. The sensing element pulled out of the shaft easily.

Before removing the shaft, noted its relative position so that the control could be re-assembled in the right heat range. The shaft was left-hand threaded, and the bearing surface to which the sensing element interfaced seemed to want to be just about flush with the frontplate at mid-range.... Noted.

I found the shaft to be hollow the full way thru, with a small ball bearing pressed into it for the element to ride on. I had about 1/4" of hole depth available on the broken shaft size, about 1/8" diameter. Just barely enough.

I flushed the shaft bits with isopropyl alcohol and lighter fluid to remove any grease residues inside. Then I prepared a steel 1/8" rod to slip inside and form a base for reconstruction of the shaft by roughing its surface on the grinder. With care, I was able to reassemble the 3 pieces of the shaft to this rod using Gorilla high-impact CA glue.

Reassembled, and verified with an ohm-meter that the switch blocks opened and closed just beyond the "off" detent. Running hot water on the sensor tube caused the switchpoint to be slightly further along... So we reassembled.

With everything together, plugged the oven back in, set the control to 200. A few minutes later, the red light went off, and the temp seemed believable. Had no oven thermo to check with, so I put a quarter cup of sugar in a foil tray, and pre-heated the oven to 350F (sugar melts at 367F). After a half-hour, the sugar was just starting to melt.

I declared the job successful.

Next morning, the oven didn't work again. Only spent a half hour to realize that the timer had been knocked.... *sigh*.



J

Are we to understand that all is OK since you un-knocked the timer?

You're a pretty handy guy and I can't see that "No User Serviceable Parts Inside" stopping you.

Yes, Fred, repaired and working as well as ever.... Took 2 hours and cost about 20 cents.

Now, if it'll just hold together for 2 or 3 years...

J

Forgive me for laughing...but you and I may be related because this is something that sounds like what I would do...as in WWRD

"this is something that sounds like what I would do...as in WWRD"

I think we're all POSITIVE that you could get it APART....

kick

But of course...

I can take ANYTHING apart...ANYTHING...

getting it back together or fixing it....well

I think my record speaks for itself....