Your ingenious idea saved my marriage. I have a Dremel and the disc for cutting, and it worked perfectly, cutting the original to slide the new couple into. So glad I saw this post.

I was worried about the "why", and the fact that my original thermocoupler had a strange bulge that was attached to the pilot gas feeder, which the replacement did not have.

So I read all posts in this thread, and a recent one answered that, saying that a safety feature exists that the store-bought universal replacements don't have. Thus the reverse threads.

I used your idea (ingenious), which worked, of course, but only as a temporary fix. I ordered the replacement kit for the whole kaboodal, and will replace when it arrives ($45).

I also find it amazing that a post from 2015 (I think) is still paying dividends to this day. Thanks again.