I smell Propane. Oven thermocouple shot?

Dusty R wrote:
About what year did they change?

I don't know about Wedgewood, but a friend's oven on his boat had trouble and we learned this about his oven - 1) prior to 1984, they did not have anything to control the pilot. If the thermostat was set to pilot, there was gas flow out of the pilot. 2) between 1984 and 1993 they built some with a thermocouple to stop gas flow to the pilot when it went out, and they built some the old way. 3) After 1993, all had the thermocouple. 4) After 2007 they redesigned to stop using mercury controls.

The OP said "I turned the oven to pilot, and WITHOUT pressing the button I reached in with the lighter thingy and it lit! Hmmmm crumbs! that ain't supposed to happen! " If he normally presses a button to light the pilot, that button is a pilot override for the pilot safety valve and thermocouple, so I'd say he is right - that shouldn't happen. There's no reason to have that button if he has the old design.

On my friend's oven, there are three devices - a mercury thermostat connected to the oven temp sensor probe, a mercury control valve that has a temp sensor integrated into the pilot assembly and the pilot safety valve with its thermocouple that sits in the pilot light.

The pilot safety valve turns gas flow on/off to the pilot light based on input from the thermocouple. The override button must be pressed to light the pilot.

The thermostat turns the pilot from low pilot to high pilot based on input from the oven temp sensor probe.

The mercury control valve controls gas flow to the main burner based on detecting the high pilot flame of the thermostat. It's the primary safety feature - it prevents lots of gas flow unless the high pilot is lit. Low pilot doesn't provide enough heat.

To get a failure of the type described above on my friend's design, the pilot safety control valve would have to be stuck open. I don't know if the OP's oven has the same type construction.