GlowWorm EP50F boiler no pilot light

[DiyNutJob]

Hey peeps, my 15 year+ old boiler finally gave up on me. I wonder if you can help me a little please ? It's been working up until now.

The boiler manual is here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/29980816/Glow-Worm-30-40-50f-boiler-instructions

At the moment, the problem is that after the fan on, the sparking just keeps going for anything from 5 minute to forever before the pilot light comes on. How long it takes is random.

I have already taken the pilot burner assembly off to clean it using Carb Cleaner for cars - it is heavily sooted with black carbon. The cleaning didn't seem to make any difference to the pilot light. But it did fix the cutting out problem for the main burner immediately upon ignition. I guess the cleaned up flame detector (it is one and the same as the spark electrode) started working again.

Anyway I have already decided to get a new pilot light burner assembly. What I am curious about is how do they clean the pilot light injector in a service ? I had a look at the injector from the bottom and didn't actually see any holes to allow gas to feed upwards. So how does gas get to the top where the pilot flame is ? Even though I failed in my cleaning, I'd still be interested to know where the gas pathway is, as I believe it is either partially or completely blocked.

Here's a picture of a new pilot burner assembly:

 

[45yearsagasman]

As petty as it may sound to you, diy gas information is not allowed on the open forum. This is a simple fix for a qualified boiler engineer.
Saying how things work does encourage diyers to have a go.
No offence intended.

 

[DiyNutJob]

Don't worry. Be as petty as you like . I know how to work things out. But I thought it might save me some patience and effort by asking people who might know. I will be able to see how the gas injector is structured once the new one arrives, and unobscured by crud. I will consider boiling the old one in vinegar as an experiment.

 

[DiyNutJob]

Got the new pilot burner assembly. Put it on and the boiler purred on like a real beauty. Comparing to the new assembly the old spark-electrode/flame-detector had shortened slightly over the years. Other than that and the pilot gas injector needing cleaning, the old assembly was fine and could have been reconditioned using just a new electrode.

The old pilot injector had two tiny holes, one of which was blocked and caused the problem I had. I didn't realise the injector could be unscrewed from the assembly and therefore was not able to clean it properly previously.

 

[45yearsagasman]

Done all the safety checks

 

[DiyNutJob]

Done all the safety checks

I vaguely remember reading someone said their gas man lighting a match to test. So I did and it checked out. As you can't tell me what to test because of pettiness, trade secret, legality, etc, etc, so you might as well not try to tell me my boiler will blow up and so on.

The gist of it is that the existing integrity of the boiler was not altered, I had no reason to, and I was not hamfisted enough to do so.

 

[45yearsagasman]

I won't try to tell you anything my friend, you seem to know enough to get your boiler going again.
The rules are not mine but the forums. Good luck.
My only priority for customers was, after a repair, was the boiler safe to use, and that takes expertise and more than a match to prove.