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I just moved to the new apartment and here we got an old dirty whirpool gas stove with nasty fat stains. I checked it and few burners would stop burn if I stopped to push the button. All the sparks worked alright. I assumed the problem was in thermocouples that were dirty.

gas stove after disassembly, everything works if you use it like this without the cover

I disassembled the cover to clean the thermocouples as much as I could using the means I have. Before putting the cover back I double checked and every burner worked fine, without issues. But as soon as I put the metal cover back the spark stopped to appear at any of the burners.

gas stove after I put the cover. Now it's not working

I repeated the process and took the cover back again and… magic! every burner works perfectly, sparks are there, thermocouples seem to work as well. If I just roughly cover it with the cover (see the photo underneath) it still works, the sparks are there.

gas stove with the cover roughly covering it

I assume there is a simple solution but I am really bad at electronics and stuff. Need your help, can’t solve this mystery. Thank you

Edit: photos of the fusers:

Fuser 1 Fuser 2 Fuser 3 Fuser 4

Foby
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    The cover is probably shorting wire/s when it down right. Would go over every wire carefully(maybe with a magetiving glass) to check for breaks in the insulation. – crip659 Nov 27 '22 at 17:43
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    Put the actual burner 'tops' back on. That's where the spark is supposed to go to. Without them, it's going to go to somewhere 'wrong'. – Tetsujin Nov 27 '22 at 17:46
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    @Tetsujin I put them on when I test the spark and everything. The problem remains - when the cover is not on it works. When it's on - it doesn't. – Foby Nov 27 '22 at 18:03
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    @crip659 thank you, will try to do that – Foby Nov 27 '22 at 18:04
  • Then the shortest route to earth is the cover, not the burner tops, as @crip659 mentioned. – Tetsujin Nov 27 '22 at 18:05
  • @crip659 I have inspected the wires and didn't find the insulation breaks. Do I understand it correctly that I can put the cover on, push the button for some time, take off the cover and the place at wires where insulation broke should be hotter than usual? – Foby Nov 27 '22 at 18:23
  • Not necessarily. A "dead short" will burn up the wires and/or trip fuse/breaker - which is not happening. Something a little less than that (i.e., a moderate resistance connection where there shouldn't be any connection at all) might be enough to prevent the spark ignition from happening but may or may not produce enough heat to be noticeable. – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact Nov 27 '22 at 18:30
  • Did you check the bottom of the wires also, where they go over the pipes. The bottom left burner wire seems to have rubbed the bottom plate. – crip659 Nov 27 '22 at 18:32
  • shorting out the flame sensor in the back – Ruskes Nov 27 '22 at 19:12
  • @crip659 I have just double checked everything including the bottoms of the wires. I also added the photos of the fusers. From the initial photo it is not so distinctive but the fuse wires are not touching the bottom anywhere. – Foby Nov 27 '22 at 19:27
  • Do not know what to say. Placing the cover on right does seem to cause it not to work. Might be the dirt/old grease plus the cover. A good cleaning will not hurt(except your elbow) and might help for some strange reason. Would need the right testing equipment with the cover on to find out the right cause. If possible one of those small inspection cameras with the cover on might see something. – crip659 Nov 27 '22 at 19:50
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    @crip659 I have identified the problem. Well, I admit it was stupid one. So basically when I closed the lid I did it not tight enough to the ground (there were 2 metal hooks on the right side that you had to put the lid base underneath). Basically the lid had to be pressed as tight to the ground as possible. Otherwise, (and that is what actually happened to me) the 4 black buttons won't go the whole distance down to invoke the spark. When I pushed them I thought that I pushed them all the way down but in reality they were blocked by the lid itself. – Foby Nov 27 '22 at 20:40

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When I closed the lid I did it not tight enough to the ground (there were 2 metal hooks on the right side that you had to put the lid base underneath). Basically the lid had to be pressed as tight to the ground as possible. Otherwise, (and that is what actually happened to me) the 4 black buttons won't go the whole distance down to invoke the spark. When I pushed them I thought that I pushed them all the way down but in reality they were blocked by the lid itself.

Foby
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    Nice that a solution was found. Sometimes it is an easy solution in that one surface needs to be placed in the right way. Had a locking connection once that was hard to find because it was not tight enough(about a 1/16 loose) but still locked. – crip659 Nov 27 '22 at 20:48
  • This also serves as a reminder to use all your senses - presumably when it sparks you can hear it click, and when it doesn't, you can't. A spark going to the cover instead of the burner would still click, so no sound means no spark anywhere – Chris H Nov 28 '22 at 09:11