Furnace Problems - Montana Owners Club

RC and Samantha · 10-17-2009, 06:18 AM

We are needing some help here. We are spending the winter in NW Montana & like most of the country the wintry weather has set in early. Last night our furnace quit working, which is has done before, but not like this.

Furnace is not lighting, not hearing any ignition click, furnace is shutting down in seconds of start. Ideas?

In advance thanx for any help you can give us.

Mrs. CountryGuy · 10-17-2009, 06:34 AM

CountryGuy says check the FLOW or SAIL switch, which checks for purging.

Switch is INSIDE furnace.

RC and Samantha · 10-17-2009, 06:41 AM

Thank you Carol & Al too. We had that replaced last year so at least we know which part you mean. The water line blew off in the curio the other day and we had water of course going every where. It only was running a few minutes but quick. We got it all dried out and the furnace has run for days with no problems. But just in case thought I should put that in the equation. Again thank you!

Drifty1 · 10-17-2009, 07:09 AM

I would check the igniter. Had to replace mines it was so bad it was crumbling away. Mine would start once and awhile but time out.
Larry in Olympia
PS You will need a new gasket for it if you pull it out.They are very fragile.

Mrs. CountryGuy · 10-17-2009, 07:19 AM

Water may or may not have anything to do with failure

Al's response, pull furnace, do bench test.

Sorry SIGHHHHH

RC and Samantha · 10-17-2009, 07:40 AM

Uh, do you have a bench we can borrow?

OK how does one go about doing a bench test, must it be hook up to a battery or something right? Now that's me Patty asking,

not RC!

Drifty, thanx for the reply, we'll for sure do that when we get the furnace out. As you know it's in an awkward spot.

(Edited to remove signature line, oops, sorry!)

Drifty1 · 10-17-2009, 08:11 AM

Do not know your model but pulled mine in place. On mine it was behind the back panel.
Larry in Olympia

RC and Samantha · 10-17-2009, 08:31 AM

Drifty, you have a 3295 RK right? Our furnace is in the same place and we have a Suburban Dynatrail Model NT-40. We had this out last year and boy what a bear it was to get out. We're not below freezing at night for the next week, so they say and hopefully, but still need to get this bad boy working. Thank for you advice.

49merc · 10-17-2009, 08:38 AM

RC and Samantha,

When we were in Yellowstone last month our furnace did the same thing. The motor would run about 20 seconds and then just shut off. It would do that several times. We just used the fireplace and electric heater till we got home. Checked around and found that it would probably be either the sail switch or the high limit device. Both inexpense parts but the labor to pull it out, replace part and reintall would make it around 250 dollars. Being a cheapskate thought I would do it myself but being lazy (somewhat) I decided to think about it. I then put my years of company technical training and experience to work and whacked it on the side several times and it has worked just fine since then. Mind you this is only a temporary fix but it does tell me that it is either a loose connection inside or it is the sail switch hanging up. All external connections were good and tight. When it starts failing again then I will have to pull it out and check the switch for hanging up. Probably a lot of dust in there. Hope this helps some.
Bob

Tom S. · 10-17-2009, 08:57 AM

OK, I'll ask the stupid question - is it getting gas?

RC and Samantha · 10-17-2009, 09:20 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by 49merc

RC abd Samantha,

When we were in Yellowstone last month our furnace did the same thing. The motor would run about 20 seconds and then just shut off. It would do that several times. We just used the fireplace and electric heater till we got home. Checked around and found that it would probably be either the sail switch or the high limit device. Both inexpense parts but the labor to pull it out, replace part and reintall would make it around 250 dollars. Being a cheapskate thought I would do it myself but being lazy (somewhat) I decided to think about it. I then put my years of company technical training and experience to work and whacked it on the side several times and it has worked just fine since then. Mind you this is only a temporary fix but it does tell me that it is either a loose connection inside or it is the sail switch hanging up. All external connections were good and tight. When it starts failing again then I will have to pull it out and check the switch for hanging up. Probably a lot of dust in there. Hope this helps some.
Bob

Bob we've done that many times in the past and just had that sail switch replaced in the spring. This furnace has been tempermental nearly since day one, that's why they fixed the switch. We did try the banging thing again this time but it's not worked since then. Thank you for your reply. I think I'll try it again.

Tom Yea, think it is getting propane. Everything else is working. We are hooked up to a 120 gallon pig. It was worked yesterday and there was no problems.

(Edited to add proper reply to all)

Drifty1 · 10-17-2009, 09:55 AM

Yes I have the NT 40 furnace so the igniter is easy to get at. It is under the back cover. There is no problem with alignment so just take it out. The gasket will break for sure. I think there is only 1 wire to if I remember. I would look at it before I took the unit out,I was glad I did.
Sorry if I take a while before I get back to you as working on shop improvements today

RC and Samantha · 10-17-2009, 10:11 AM

Drifty, thank you again. When you say back cover I am confused which you mean. Your furnace is under the curio cabinet right? The whole furnace looks so darn simple, it's amazing that they could be so temperamental. So I am a big confused by the gasket reference. On the outside of our Montana the furnace only has a metal thing that exhausts the very hot air outside. We have no door or anything like that I have seen on other units. We have a 2003 (built in October of 2002) 3295RK Montana Big Sky.

Drifty1 · 10-17-2009, 10:24 AM

Hang one min I will post picture. The trailer is out side the door and it stopped raining.
Larry

Drifty1 · 10-17-2009, 10:36 AM

RC This link has photos of my furnace. Look at the photo and you should be able to figure my layout.
If not I sent you a PM with my phone # so you can call me. The photos are the last 5-6 on album.
Link http://picasaweb.google.com/Drifty1/BigRed#

RC and Samantha · 10-17-2009, 04:52 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Drifty1

RC This link has photos of my furnace. Look at the photo and you should be able to figure my layout.
If not I sent you a PM with my phone # so you can call me. The photos are the last 5-6 on album.
Link http://picasaweb.google.com/Drifty1/BigRed#

Larry Thank you for the photos, that's exactly what we have.

New development

I think perhaps we have TOO MUCH pressure coming out of the new propane set up.

Tonight when I went to cook dinner I couldn't get the burner to light. So I got out my handy fire clicker and the burner would not light, instead the flow of gas was so hard that it would blow itself out. The only way I could get the burner to light and stay lit was to turn the burner down considerably. So I am thinking and wondering if it's possible to have too much propane flowing and that is preventing the furnace from igniting? Is this possibly the problem. Hoping my fellow MOC-ers can enlighten me on this one??

Drifty1 · 10-17-2009, 06:37 PM

Are you tied to the regulator and switching valve with a longer hose from your temp bottle? I don't know how they have you set up. I figure the local propane co. tied you on to the larger bottle right? Could have a bad regulator? That is not good if you figure that the pressure is to high. Be careful. That will affect the water heater and refer also. Might want to call the propane co. in town and have their service guy check the install on the larger bottle just to be sure! Can you post any photos of hookup? This might help the members come up with more ideas.
Larry in Olympia

richfaa · 10-18-2009, 10:21 AM

For what it is worth. This happened a couple of weeks ago while at the service center. They were wielding in the propane compartment area and removed the tanks.When they put them back they did not restore the flow. later Helen tried to turn on the furnace and we got no heat. Found the tanks turned off and restored flow..then.. The fan would come on. heat would come on...furnace would run for exactly 1 min 20 seconds then shut down and not come back on. Found that we could increase the temp setting at the thermostat by a couple of degrees and it would do the same thing over again..1 min 20 seconds then shut off. had to do this many times till it finally would run normal.. Figured we had a air bubble in the lines ?????

RC and Samantha · 10-19-2009, 03:25 PM

Hi Rich

Wish that would have been our problem, but it wasn't. Glad to read you got yours resolved.

This is what happened on Sunday (sorry it took me so long to get back here and update )

RV Repair guy was out. Thank goodness for Mobile RV Repair guys. We now have a working furnace. It was the board! He replaced the igniter at my request while at it. Had the sail switch replaced in June...so essentially other than the blower motor there should be nothing that can go wrong. Warm & Toasty is a nice feeling.

Larry

Thank you again for your input & photos.

We are hooked up to a 120 gallon pig. It's like a large propane tank seen at many homes but smaller. I will try and take photos tomorrow. Forgot today.

Since Saturday we haven't had the TOO MUCH pressure thing. Don't know what that was or what caused it. Hope it doesn't happen again.

I want to thank everyone who replied & for their input. RV furnace repair is expensive for such a simple piece of equipment it's pretty amazing.

NCFischers · 10-19-2009, 04:07 PM

Any spiders in the line? There is one type of spider that loves propane. You'll need a bottle brush to clean the line out.

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