"Ed Sirett" wrote in message
news
On Sun, 23 Nov 2003 13:55:22 +0000, Stephen Clark wrote:

"BillP" wrote in message
...


Hi Stephen,

I've got a Baxi WM381. I'd definitely go for the thermocouple first,
universal thermocouple kit will do the job. Over the 20 odd years
service
this boilers given I've needed to replace the thermocouple three times,
and
the symptom you describe is typical. The gas valve solenoid failed once
and
had to buy the complete valve assembly, about £75 + vat three years
ago,
this gave a different fault to what you are describing, the pilot light
was
ok but the main burner didn't light. The WM381 has no overheat. The
internal
circuit is shown in the manual and consists only of boiler thermostat
and
gas valve.

Replace the thermocouple first, it's a straight forward job and you
won't
be
disturbing any gas joints.

Good luck

Bill

I've just had a look at the end of the thermocouple and it looks badly
corroded. I visited a DIY store and got a Universal Thermocouple. It
does
not exactly match the existing one for length etc so I'm no sure which
adaptors to use to fix it correctly. Since it's a fail safe component -
I
imagine that I can't do any harm by trying various combinations.

The hot end it is only necessary to make sure it is held securely in
place, with about the last 10mm in the flame.
The connection to the gas valve is usually quite fiddly but is likely to
be only one of a couple of the nuts.

--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html

Yea, I fitted the Universal thermocouple device yesterday. The connection to
the value WAS fiddly, it took 20 minutes. So far the burners are quite
stable. Hopefully all is OK. Thanks to this group for giving the the courage
to replace the thermocouple - you've saved me a packet. Perhaps if you ever
have a meeting in Leeds I'll buy you all a drink? (o: