"Vacillator" wrote in message
...
Arfa,

Thanks for the informative reply. I have yet to
disassemble anything. I was hoping it would fix itself, or that I
would be able to figure out how to use the oven by tweaking the dials
in a certain way, but it is just getting worse, actually, so I will be
opening it up soon.
The switch on my oven in a bit different, of course, but, like
yours, it is a rotary mechanical, so possibly can be cleaned, of
course. I don't know if it is attached with screws, or rivets.
I will need to walk the oven out from the wall, get the front
panel off, then see what's there. It will be a weekend project, I
think.


Mine was actually exceptionally easy to get at. It's a 'range style' cooker.
One small oven with grill, one large oven with grill, and five gas burners
on top. The entire top actually hinged up from the back, after undoing a few
very obvious screws, and a couple of less obvious ones, concealed under the
burners, which of course just lift off for cleaning. I understand from a
friend who does this stuff for a living, that this is a common arrangement -
at least on UK cookers. Once the top was hinged up, a 'sub-deck' was
revealed, to which was fixed all the gas pipework and electrical wiring. The
front panel gas valves for the burners, and rotary switches for oven and
grill control, were completely exposed, fixed to the front panel. Once the
knobs were removed, and a couple more screws removed, the decorative front
panel just lifted away, exposing the fixings for the controls. The whole
dismantling procedure took just a few minutes. The actual switch that was
dodgy, was an open frame type, so easy to see the contacts. The shaft was
easy to remove. A spigot on the far end engaged with a hole in the switch
back-plate, and further forward, a half-round 'cap' secured by two screws,
held it to the main body. Think car crankshaft main bearing cap to get an
idea.

When mine first started giving trouble, it could be 'fixed' for a day or two
at a time, by careful rotation to the desired position, in one direction,
rather than the other. Don't really know why that should have been, but
perhaps the previous position to the one needed, lifted the contacts a bit
higher or something, so 'slammed' them back together a bit harder, or caused
them to 'wipe' a bit, maybe ??

Arfa