[VAC] Re: Stupid Newbie Question....

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer]

I've had my hike (and then some). I find NO provision on the oven knob
in my '68 Caravel for a pilot position. The first position is 140 the
last position is B for broil. There is nothing in my '68 owner's manual
about the Caravel oven. 

I have no experience with gas ovens, my mother threw out a perfectly
good gas/wood range in the 40s because she grew tired of picking the
oven door off the opposite wall of the kitchen and growing eyebrows from
having difficulties lighting that oven. She went to electric that early.
My grandmother used that range with wood for the next 25 or 30 years. 

I didn't see a pilot valve in my oven. There has to be a pilot to allow
the thermostat to cycle the main burner to control oven temperature.

With my lack of old fashioned gas oven experience, I wasn't interested
in experimenting.

I suspect that the drill is something like this:

1. turn on the gas at the LP tank(s).
2. with a match or other near continuous ignitor near a surface burner
turn on that burner and keep trying until it burns well. That's to clear
air from the propane lines.
3. Turn OFF all surface burners (in case of slow oven ignition that
vents combustible gas).
4. With a match or other near continuos ignitor near the oven burner,
turn the oven on to its lowest setting. Keep the ignition source in the
oven at the burner until the burner and pilot are lit and burning
evenly.
5. There appears to be no thermocouple safety valve (though I didn't
test for one) so one needs to be sure to turn off the oven control and
vent the oven and Caravel thoroughly if the oven goes out. Don't switch
any electric lights, or smoke if that happens.

Me, I think I'll hunt up a stove top oven and use that over a burner to
bake if I can't accomplish adequate eats in a skillet and small sauce
pan.

A modern cook top with automatic electronic ignition, if one can be
found that small, may be a good investment in safety.

I do have a slightly larger stove without pilot in my rotting SOB. I may
have a book on its range here somewhere, but I've not seen that book in
a long time. I've not used its oven either, though I can see by the
patterns in the aluminum skin outside the oven that it did a big turkey
once and nearly burned the trailer in the process.

Gerald J.



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