Home appliance with maintop gas control apparatus

A self-cleaning gas-fueled range comprising:

• a range body;
• a maintop mounted to the range body, the maintop having at least one gas burner;
• an oven mounted within the range body, the oven having at least one gas burner;
• and
• a gas control apparatus including:
• a pressure regulator for receiving gas from a gas facility and distributing gas within the home appliance as fuel for heating use, the pressure regulator defining a gas conduit having a gas inlet, at least one gas outlet, and a valve disposed intermediate the gas inlet and the at least one gas outlet, the valve including a valve stem configured for movement along an axis to open and close the valve;
• and
• a valve actuator including a drive element disposed remotely from the valve, the drive element being a rotary drive element operatively engaged with the valve stem for moving the valve between an open position and a closed position;
• and a mechanical link assembly disposed intermediate the valve stem and the drive element for converting rotary movement of the drive element into linear movement of the valve stem, the mechanical link assembly having a first link having a rigid body attached to the drive element for rotational movement therewith;
• and a second link having a flexible body portion, the second link being flexibly attached to the first link and flexibly attached to the valve stem using a spring hook formed on the second link, the flexible attachment configured to induce linear movement of the valve stem responsive to movement of the first link, the second link facilitating off-axis movement, relative to the valve stem, of the first link while maintaining axial movement of the valve stem during movement of the valve between the open position and the closed position, such that the second link translates the rotational movement of the first link to the linear movement of the valve stem.