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More Furnace questions


desertrat

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Hey all, I have a 1988 Horizon with a 1987 Suburban 12K BTU furnace in it. The fan always works, but no flame. I took the igniter out and cleaned it, and after several more cycles, it actually lit, but now it's back to not lighting and pushing cold air. I tried cycling the thing about 10 times yesterday and it doesn't want to light again. The gap seems ok on ignitor. Should I tear it apart and clean burner assembly and the insides? Could it be an intermitant sticking sail switch? If so, how do I get to it. Maybe I'll try replacing the ignitor to see if that works, as a start. By the way, I installed a new water heater and that fires up everytime, so I assume LP pressure is ok.

Any advise would be appreciated

Thanks

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Have you tried it with the MH plugged in to an outlet? If it's the stock ignitor board it only tries once and gives up. A lot of the replacement boards will try 3 times to light. Dinosaur boards seem to make a nice replacement I have one in mine and it works great. You should be able to see a spark thru the little window. The sail switch is buried you'll have to have the heater out to deal with that.

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Have you tried it with the MH plugged in to an outlet? If it's the stock ignitor board it only tries once and gives up. A lot of the replacement boards will try 3 times to light. Dinosaur boards seem to make a nice replacement I have one in mine and it works great. You should be able to see a spark thru the little window. The sail switch is buried you'll have to have the heater out to deal with that.

Thanks Maineah, I have not tried it with the shoreline as I just replaced the house battery with a strong group 27, but it's worth a try. Thanks for the reminder. I'll do that today. Have to see if my fridge works anyway.

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Just FYI, I hooked up shore power, figured out how to make the converter go on to charge battery and realized the refer works on gas, but the da%#*ed heater will not light. I'll have to tear the beast out today and explore. I don't have a window on mine to check if the ignitor is sparking appropriately, but i took it out, regapped it again (1/8" +/- 1/32" and shined those metal rods with fine sand paper. I definitely hear a click as if it's trying to light (only one click), and smell a little propane for just 5 seconds each time I cycled the heater. I don't get why it lit the one time only. I'm not doing anything different before or after that. Maybe it is the board. Maybe I should replace the board and the ignitor? or maybe I should just relace it with a new atwood 8012-11 which only draws 1.8 amps instead of the 2.8 this thing takes. Not sure what the dinasaur boards cost, but will get online tonight.

Thanks

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So, I pulled the furnace out today, took out the burner tube and fan cover, blew the thing out, found an old mud wasp nest from near the fan, removed it and cleaned what contacts I could reach, wire brushed the gas vents in burner tube, put the beast back in and everything works perfect. Fires up every time. My daughter is stoked. I'm stoked. I'll be using 1 more amp than a new unit but I saved over $450.00 and I'm recycling. Guess I can buy another solar panel now with the money I saved.

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So, I pulled the furnace out today, took out the burner tube and fan cover, blew the thing out, found an old mud wasp nest from near the fan, removed it and cleaned what contacts I could reach, wire brushed the gas vents in burner tube, put the beast back in and everything works perfect. Fires up every time. My daughter is stoked. I'm stoked. I'll be using 1 more amp than a new unit but I saved over $450.00 and I'm recycling. Guess I can buy another solar panel now with the money I saved.

I like you way you think get a nice 50 watt one.

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I like you way you think get a nice 50 watt one.

Thanks. So, not to start another topic, but what do you suggest for a 50 watt panel, and do you have any preferred shopping sites? I have a 15 watt panel now, and i believe that only provides 1 amp at maximum exposure.

I have a 105 amp hour battery and have read that you should get at least 1/2 the amps in a solar panel as your battery provides. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance

Steve

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Thanks. So, not to start another topic, but what do you suggest for a 50 watt panel, and do you have any preferred shopping sites? I have a 15 watt panel now, and i believe that only provides 1 amp at maximum exposure.

I have a 105 amp hour battery and have read that you should get at least 1/2 the amps in a solar panel as your battery provides. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance

Steve

Wow there are as many ideals on solar stuff as there brands of cars. If there is a solar products supplier in your area I would go pick his brain nothing beats eye to eye with some one who has experience with solar panels and battery banks. Things like controllers,wire gauge you name it quite a science. Your little 15 watt panel is a good keep it alive charger while its parked but would have a hard time keeping up. 50 amps - 600 watts at 12 volts I don't think your MH roof is big enough.

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Thanks Maineah, I'll be doing my homework on the solar stuff. Due to cost and space (on the roof) I was thinking about just adding another 15 W panel and connecting it to the existing one. Still inadequate for an appreciably drained battery, but I can be very conservative with power. I have changed all the fixtures to .4 amp lights and a couple of 8 watt fluorescents and an LED fixture. I know that old heater of mine sucks the juice, but I can be conservative with that too. Now I need to figure out if my alternator is really charging the house battery. The multimeter didn't register much more charge at the battery than when the engine is off. Maybe 0 .5 vdc. Do you know if I'm wrong in checking it this way. When I have the shoreline plugged in and converter/charger operating, I can really measure the higher charge happening at the coach battery. I guess there are issues and I'll be starting a new post in regards to whats what on my vehicle. Rusty isolators, wires running amock. I may have to seek out professional advise.

Thanks

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