Do-It-Yourself Story

This has been a complete rebuild of two Gaggenau cooktop modules. Both had suffered from neglect. Both had broken igniter spark plugs. To replace the plugs you need to remove the inner burner ring. That is screwed in and you use a 10 MM allemn driver. On mine they were both essentially frozen. After trying a number of tricks that did not work I removed the burner assembly (disconnect everytthing) and screwed it to a large 4X6 that was fallout from sone other work. Then a 10 MM allen bit for a 3/8" socket set and a large ratchet and a long pipe plus slow steady pressure got the parts apart so i could finally replace the spark plugs. Clean all the corrosion up (use white vinegar + Pepsi in a suitable plastic container for overnight) and got down to the brass. a little polish to clean it all up. Don't put much time into it because it will turn gray very fast which is normal. Reassemble and discover that while both light they don't stay on. Thermocouple problem? So replace the thermocouples (again requires removing the burner assembly). One burner was working better. On closer examination the thermocouple senses the inner burner ring. one one cooktop the inner ring was low and did not adjust with either the valve or the low setting screw. Replace valve (even more dismantling) and then it adjusts. its still lower thatn I think it should be so ythe next step will be the gas jet for the inner burner. They are stupid expensive (like all Gaggenau parts) so I may take some precision drills and open it up that way. Overall not too hard to work on but not a quick task.