Something ain't right!

My rich cousin gave me this heater to sell on Ebay. He was frustrated with trying to keep it lit. I finally got around to evaluating it, he wasn't wrong. It works for awhile, then the pilot starts flickering noisily, pilot goes out, thermocouple cools, burner quits. I tried to pull the thermocouple up some to be in the pilot flame more but it won't move any. I only guess that the heat from the ceramic grill deflects the pilot flame off the thermocouple.