Chosen Solution
I have a 20yo Viking dual fuel range, Model: DSC365-4GBK . 36” wide with electric oven , 4 gas stove burners with a gas griddle in the center. I have made some repairs over the years: Replaced oven door hingesReplaced oven elementReplaced oven thermostatReplaced one cracked stove burner igniterReplaced one stove knob Our current problem is that two stove burner igniters have stopped working reliably. The burners work perfectly as long as they are ignited, and the rear two are working just fine. However, the front two now don’t usually spark when you use the dial controller for that specific burner. The gas comes on, but you can’t get it to spark most of the time. However, if you turn one of the rear dials to spark, that will generally fire all the igniters, and if you have the gas on for one of those two problematic front burners at that time, they’ll spark and work just fine. We tried replacing the igniter at first, but that didn’t help. Then we swapped the wire from the dial to the igniter and the igniter itself from the rear right to the front right, and visa versa. In that case the same issue happened - the front right continued not to spark, but the rear continued to work fine. So it seems like the problem isn’t the electrical current or the igniter or the gas by themselves, but something specific to that burner. Maybe there is some corrosion in the burner that is preventing a spark from leaping to it from the igniter? It is well-used, after all. Because of their configuration you can’t move that part from one burner to another, so I don’t know what else to test/try. We’ve scrubbed away some of the rustiness in the areas around the igniter, but no improvement there. And, this is inconsistent. Sometimes we will get the igniter to work on the problematic burners, but usually not. What could be the issue? Good burner (installed)
Non-sparking burner
Hi @benderguy, I might have missed it but did you also check the burners’ control dial? You said that you swapped the igniter and the wiring but not the dial. Also the earth connection for the front igniters to work seems OK as you said that when the rear igniters were firing so were the front ones Here’s an image of the wiring for a Viking stove (not sure if it is the same for your model as it is from the Viking VGIC365-4G service manual.
(click on image to enlarge for better viewing) Check that there is continuity i.e. short circuit, through the burner control dial switch when it is operated and that it is not high resistance or varying if the dial is tapped etc. (shown as LF and RF valve switch in the schematic). Although it does seem unusual for both the front burners to have the same problem. Hopefully this is of some help.
