I have what I believe to be a faulty thermocouple in my Kenmore Power Miser 9 water heater. The flame has started going out randomly, and it will spark and hold the pilot as long as I'm pushing down the button, but then goes right out after releasing. I can hold it up to five minutes and it won't keep the flame lit.
After trying to remove the burner assembly in order to replace the thermocouple, there's one big center brass nut holding the main burner arm to the gas valve that is stuck. The two smaller ones are easy to remove, but that center one is completely seized although it has no noticeable signs of corrosion. It's almost getting to the point where it's stripped out, so I'm trying to figure out where to go from here. Would it be safe to remove the four security torx screws from the panel in order to get a little bit of wd40 dropping down onto those threads? I of course have the gas turned off on the main line feeding the valve. My next step is getting some better quality open-ended crescent wrenches and trying after a little wd40 on q-tips, but I'm getting desperate so I figured take a long shot here if someone has a good idea other than "just do it very carefully", which is the ultimate answer to my problem.
After trying to remove the burner assembly in order to replace the thermocouple, there's one big center brass nut holding the main burner arm to the gas valve that is stuck. The two smaller ones are easy to remove, but that center one is completely seized although it has no noticeable signs of corrosion. It's almost getting to the point where it's stripped out, so I'm trying to figure out where to go from here. Would it be safe to remove the four security torx screws from the panel in order to get a little bit of wd40 dropping down onto those threads? I of course have the gas turned off on the main line feeding the valve. My next step is getting some better quality open-ended crescent wrenches and trying after a little wd40 on q-tips, but I'm getting desperate so I figured take a long shot here if someone has a good idea other than "just do it very carefully", which is the ultimate answer to my problem.
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