Furnace Pilot

[ng_reader]

Any reason why the pilot light will not lite from my flame?

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to have the gas main on or not, but I tried it both ways.

I turn the knob to off, wait 5 minutes, push down over pilot, and absolutely nothing.

I've never lit this before, but I had the gas off replacing a wall oven, and it must have gone out.

The unit's electronic pilot was replaced about 10 years ago according the sticker on the front, and we moved into the house about 2 years ago.

I read here where you should heat the solenoid up enough so the pilot stays lit, but I've had a steady flame on where the pilot should be for over 60 seconds, still no itty bitty flame.

Does the electronic pilot mean anything? Like, it will even turn the pilot on or something?

Just wondering,

Mr Curios

[Dan]

Can't tell too well from what you've said if you've done this, but with a regular pilot usually you have to set the gas valve to pilot, then depress & hold down the pilot button (usually red & right next to the on/off/pilot knob) then light the pilot & keep pressing the red button until the thermocouple gets warm enough to generate the little voltage that tells the gas valve to stay on. Then you switch over to "on" and you're good to go (assuming no other problems). Also once you shut off the gas & especially if you've opened the line, it can take a fair amount of time for gas to reach the pilot light, due to the low pressure there. Not sure what you mean by "electronic pilot". Some furnace have a pilotLESS electronic ignition. Obviously with these there is no pilot to light.

Dan

ng_reader wrote:

[Speedy Jim]

While the gas line was disconnected, air got into the lines. Now, you must bleed off all that air before the pilot burner receives a pure enough gas mixture.

If you're familiar with the work, loosen a union *after* the furnace gas shutoff valve and allow enough air to escape. If you're unfamiliar with the practice, ask the utility to light the pilot; usually they are very co-operative.

So...I'm not encouraging you to do anything dangerous; use your own good judgement.

im

[ng_reader]

Not sure I can get at that 1/2" black pipe, but did go after a thin line and loosened it. No gas came out, as it's after the electronics, and I think that's stopping the flow of gas.

I guess my next step is to call the gas company, and then later, the HVAC technician.

[ng_reader]

It was a black knob that had a straight black line which was presumably the Pilot. The push knob and the turn switch were the same piece of hardened plastic.

I would assume the furnace would *work* if I had that pilotLESS jobbie, correct?

[ng_reader]

Noticed on the shelf was an old part, that looked like I might want to know more about. It was a box marked "Automatic Pilot" with a price of $145 written on it, and in a different hand writing (memory serves that would be the old homeowner) "OLD PART".

So I decided to see what would be to remove this part in the furnace, basically a sensor on a copper coil turning the gas off or on and starting the pilot light.

As soon as I started to unscrew the doo-hickey from just in front of the pilot light, I hear clicking (the sound of a spark igniting) and I had my Pilot. Viola.

So, I guess that part is problematic, the old one is probably still good, and probably replaced when the senior had a problem but decided to keep it because it's not defective. Just prone to malfuntioning, maybe.

It's a White Rodgers (they may be part of Emerson now) 3098-134 Automatic Pilot. However the one on there was a 3098 but had three different numbers after it. But it looked exactly the same.

Feel free to email me directly as this thread is over, for any additonal questions+remarks.