Strange Furnace Problem

[ThomasC]

Originally Posted by AlanKilian

I always thought the flow regulator was in the tank and not in the regulator.

I don't think there's a need to remove the regulator. Every time this happened to me I just turned the tank off, gave it a little tap and then slowly turned it back on again and everything was fine.

That is a safety valve. do you remember everyone was updating their tanks 20 years or so ago. The special valve prevents rapid gas flow in an accident. I seem to remember a mother and several children dying in a SUV after refilling a BBQ tank. The new valve helped prevent this.

[ThomasC]

The new regulator is in, and I was sure I was all set for when it got colder.

WRONG!!

We had a few cool days in the fall and the problems were still there. Now I am getting frantic. I ordered more spare parts. I finally got a gas valve and an igniter. I also got another sail switch because the first one was not the right part.

Changing the gas valve didn't change anything either. I took the igniter out and closed the gap a little. No change. On an oil burner everything is in front of you and you can SEE how everything is lining up. I had been pulling the igniter out by itself, don't ask me why. This time I pulled the gas valve igniter and burner out as a unit.

The igniter was touching the burner. It was shorting out.

[ThomasC]

I am leaving out a of steps. There was a lot of try this and that because I was running out of ideas. The burner (the thing with all the little holes) has to be square with the gas valve because it goes into a pipe that funnels down and it can be pushed into the igniter again. I found out that the hard way.

Now working with the gas valve, burner, and igniter as a unit. I got everything straight and square. I had to do quite a bit of bending to get the igniter positioned correctly.

[AlanKilian]

Regulators are fairly inexpensive, and don't last forever so buying a new one is fine, but you CAN try removing that black cover and adjust your regulator if it's low.

[ThomasC]

I got it all back together and it still didn't run. I just sat there staring at it for a few minutes. Well out with the ohm meter test the high limit and sail switch AGAIN. The sail switch had 17 ohms one time. Every other time it was fine. Now I am doubting my eyes and my test leads.

I am going to buy new test leads for my meter. The leads have gotten stiff, and the alligator clips are all FUBAR.

I changed out the sail switch as I got the right one the second time around. Everything has been working for a few weeks. There are no strange starts. It fires the first try on every start.

The heat pump is nice but not when it gets down into the thirties.

[ThomasC]

Originally Posted by AlanKilian

Regulators are fairly inexpensive, and don't last forever so buying a new one is fine, but you CAN try removing that black cover and adjust your regulator if it's low.

I did that and it hardly brought it up to 7 inches.

[ThomasC]

That furnace was delivered with the igniter touching the burner. There had to be enough arcing to fire it up most of the time. The circuit board will give it three tries before it shuts down for a while before it goes for another three tries.

Some place in there I developed an intermittent sail switch. I pulled the air intake and vacuumed as much assembly debris as I could.

Blocking an air vent will shut the unit down through the high limit switch.

There is no way an RV shop would have fixed this. They would have fiddled with it a bit and ordered a new furnace.

There is no correct way to replace an igniter without pulling the gas valve and working on it as a unit.

Finally, it is not so bad changing the gas valve once you have done it a few times.

That guy on the Escape forum didn't fix his until he changed the gas valve. Perhaps his igniter got installed correctly that time around.

Tom C