Furnace or propane problem

[funjayco]

I just pulled out the furnace to service it, because it was not working. I vacuumed a lot of mud daubers from all over the chamber and the blower. I though I found the problem, but it is still not working. I unscrew the propane line from the furnace to see if I would smell something, but nothing was coming out. is this normal? Is there some kind of safety when the line is disconnect. Stove is working The blower work, I can here the spark and the ignition rods still look like new. After a few try from the furnace, a red blinking light is showing (3 blink/3 sec interval) which according to the manual, it is a "ignition lockout fault". What is that mean? Could it be a propane issue. is there any way to check the propane at the furnace. Like I said, no hissing with the hose disconnect and no smell. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you

[norty1]

I'm not an expert but I think the furnace is telling you that it tried to light a fixed number of times, did not and shut itself off. Sounds like your propane is not getting to the furnace.

Try shutting off the propane at the tank, then slowly opening the gas valves and try again.

[funjayco]

Ok, i found on the forum that disconnecting the propane line at the furnace probably trigger the safety switch in the pigtail. I can smell propane at the exterior vent when trying to ignite. So the solenoid works to open the propane when it needs it. This eliminate the pigtail issue. So, maybe it's an electrical problem??? How can I test the voltage? Should I test at the thermostat or at the furnace or both?

Thanks

[funjayco]

thanks norty1,

I was just outside and did that. open the valve slowly. Propane is there but still no fire . always have the fault ignition. that's why I think it's maybe electrical. someone on the forum mention changing the thermostat fixed the problem. I need to get me a volt tester tomorrow.

[edatlanta]

I had an interesting situation just last month. I filled one of my two propane tanks and reinstalled on my Designer. I switched to this recently filled tank and no propane would flow. The tank was obviously full. I turned off the valve on the tank, removed the hose and then reinstalled the hose and "slowly" opened the valve. Still no flow. I then removed the hose again with the valve off and took a small screwdriver and opened the overflow on the tank for a couple of seconds. You know the one they use when they are filling the tank. I then put the hose back on and "slowly" opened the valve. Success. I had propane flowing. Apparently purging a couple of seconds out of the overflow worked. I'm not sure why, but it did.

[funjayco]

I think I found the problem. The ignition rods are not sparking like they should. I attached a picture of the part out and clamped it on the front of the furnace. I started the furnace and look for sparks. few ones shows at the and of the electrodes and most of them happened near the plate inside the ceramic tube. I have more pictures and some bad videos of me trying to figure this thing out if anyone would like to see more. I learned a lot in the past two days and feel very comfortable to take the whole unit out to clean and service it. I will post the result when the new part is installed. Happy camping [ATTACH][/ATTACH]

[Doug]

Sounds like you found your problem.
That's the wonderful thing about having the time and patience to troubleshoot things yourself.
Most systems are not that complicated and with some time to confer with resources on the forum and web, you learn alot and save yourself some $$
I always feel better when I can fix things myself. I know it's done right :-)

[funjayco]

Just got the part today, (the new electrode assembly) I installed it and its working! The new ignition rod and a big vacuuming job brought the unit back to life. We are now ready for the harch winter of Florida:hihi:

[funjayco]

I forgot to mention that I also had to replace the regulator and the pigtail at the propane tank. That was also part of the problem.