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Did I repair furnace correctly?


BobBeery

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The suburban furnace in my 94 Warrior worked okay in late April this year, just more fan noise than I would like.  But in late July it was dead.  No fan, no clicks, fuse in 12v converter was okay.  Our next trip is to Michigan's upper peninsula right after Labor Day; forecast is for 60's high, mid 40's to low 50's at night.  So I went on a voltage hunt.  I found a buss glass fuse in the red feed wire on the side of the furnace had blown.  4 amp was hard to find.  Struck out at NAPA.  Auto Zone had one only if you bought a nine fuse assortment for 3.99.  Found them at a hardware associated with the do-it-best chain.  A 4-pack of 4 amp fuses was 1.99 but then I saw a 2-pack of time-delay 4 amp fuses for 4.19.  Since I could not think of a reason for an overamperage I was concerned that I would keep blowing a regular fuse.  I thought it only runs the fan so the time delay fuse seemed a better idea and installed one.  Furnace works.  Now today I got out the factory manual for the furnace and saw there is a circuit board in there.  The question is--could I ruin the circuit board if the voltage goes over 4 again?  I have been told that time delay fuses take about 30 seconds to blow.  Should I pull out the time delay fuse and put in a standard one?

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Chances are the board is the problem it's a fairly high failure issue. It's not voltage it's current if the fuse was blown it was over current. I can tell you this glass fuses can die of old age more so if they a horizontal the vibration over time will stretch the lead reducing it's capacity so cross your fingers all maybe fine. I don't see any concern with the slow blow.

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That fuse may have been horizontal.  I didn't see it until I pulled a nest of wires from the left side to the front.  Not too happy to learn about boards going bad.  I will see what happens..  Hope to get at least another ten years with this Toy.

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12 hours ago, BobBeery said:

That fuse may have been horizontal.  I didn't see it until I pulled a nest of wires from the left side to the front.  Not too happy to learn about boards going bad.  I will see what happens..  Hope to get at least another ten years with this Toy.

The new boards are like $80 they are superior to the old ones so no bank loan is needed. Usually when they go toes up they run but just won't light. 

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Maineah, 

Thanks for the info on board cost.

If I go in there to replace a board I might as well replace or lubricate the (noisy) fan motor with a quiet one.  Any Idea on the cost for one of those?  I remember pricing a motor for the furnace in my previous 87 Dolphin and the price was over $120 at an RV dealer.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Back from Michigan's UP.  Used the furnace two nights.  At first the sail switch would move but stop just short of closing.  I took off the front grill and used a stick to wiggle the switch several times and then it would creep closed but the furnace would run.  Fan was fairly noisy.  After two nights use the sail switch closes quickly and the fan motor is noticeably quieter.  I guess it just needed to be used some.

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The sail switch relays on enough wind from the fan if it's squealing it's probably not turning fast enough. The little bearings when new were impregnated with oil and eventually they just dry up they can be disassembled and lubed with some thing like white grease.  

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