Natural Gas Furnace Problem, pilot light not lit RHEEM RGAC 080C


  #1  
Old 11-13-11, 04:55 PM
H
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: USA
Posts: 4
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
Natural Gas Furnace Problem, pilot light not lit RHEEM RGAC 080C

I'm having an issue with my furnace. I went to turn it on for the winter, and there's just a buzzing noise where the igniter is trying to light. But it isn't lighting. Heard a thermocouple could be the culprit, so I went and bought one, because it's only $8 anyways at HD.

I shut the gas off, took out the pilot and then I realized this thing doesn't even look like it has a thermocouple on it! Looks like just an igniter? My furnace is from the early 80's, I think it might be from 1981 or 1982.

So, I was wondering if I can just put the thermocouple on and see if that fixes the problem anyway? The only spot on the regulator that looks like a thermocouple could go to is a spot that is capped off (with an allen wrench plug) says the words "Press Tap". But I was wondering if that's even where I would put the thermal couple too. I'm new to furnaces, so If I look like a retard during this post, please let me know!

Here are some pics for reference.

Shot of the innards of the furnace.

The pilot, and what i thought was a thermocouple, but i guess it wasn't.

Regulator

Where I disconnected the silver pilot line from. Notice the words "Press Tap"?

New thermocouple that I bought

Regulator label

Where the other end of orange (the igniter???) line goes to

Furnace Label

Like I said before, I'm no expert, so hopefully it's something easy I can fix or do on my own! Any help or insight would be much appreciated.
 
  #2  
Old 11-13-11, 06:18 PM
M
Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: San Jose,Ca
Posts: 1,277
Upvotes: 0
Received 3 Upvotes on 3 Posts
It does NOT use a tcouple, put the tcouple on a nail next to the water heater.
Did you check the fuse on the module? Are you sure the thermostat was calling for heat?
 
  #3  
Old 11-13-11, 06:18 PM
SeattlePioneer's Avatar
Banned. Rule And/Or Policy Violation
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Seattle, Wa
Posts: 4,469
Upvotes: 0
Received 1 Upvote on 1 Post
Well, you don't have a clue about your furnace. It would be amusing except that furnaces can be dangerous if people screw around with them when they don't know what they are doing.

At least you recognized that you don't have a clue before you did anything --- so you avoided creating any hazard.

You have a Honeywell intermittent pilot ignition system. The gray plastic box the spark cable goes to is the ignition control.

When the thermostat calls for heat, the ignition control turns on the gas to the pilot burner and the spark to light the pilot. When the pilot burner lights the lit pilot burner is detected by the ignition control which turns off the spark and turns on the gas to the main burner. When the thermostat is satisfied the ignition control shuts off the pilot burner and the main burner gas.

There is no thermocouple in the system.

On the positive side you get an "A" for deciding not to do anything when your plans for repair didn't seem to match up with reality.

You also get a B+ for describing the problem with the furnace and the pictures.

So don't imagine I'm being too hard on you. You actually did pretty well.

From your description of the problem, the sequence of ignition I derscribed has stopped with the spark being turned on, and probably gas being turned on to the pilot burner. But the pilot isn't lighting.

You should check to see if gas is coming from the pilot burner. You can hold a match to the pilot burner while its sparking and odds are the pilot burner and furnace will light. Report back on what you find.

It's also possible that there is no gas coming out for the spark to light. Report back if that is the case.
 
  #4  
Old 11-13-11, 06:48 PM
H
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: USA
Posts: 4
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
Thanks for the fast response, I will try what you have asked, and get back with you!
 
  #5  
Old 11-20-11, 02:25 PM
H
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: USA
Posts: 4
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
Sorry it took so long to write back, I'm currently working 50 hours a week and going to school M-F 8 hours a day, getting 3 hours of sleep during the week.

Tried lighting the pilot light with the furnace off, no good. Turned the furnace on and tried to light it, still nothing. When I put the lighter (BBQ lighter) at the end of the pilot where the ignitor was sparking, the spark would stop sparking. The end of the pilot was making the flame from my lighter sputter a bit (flame on the lighter getting bigger). So not sure If i'm lighting it right or not. This honeywell box is kinda confusing, I don't see an option for "PILOT" theres just an on and off position, where you press the knob down and move it over to the "ON" position. Any thoughts?
 
  #6  
Old 11-20-11, 02:30 PM
H
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: USA
Posts: 4
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
Also, I did have to unhook the thermostat and rehook it up because I was doing some drywalling in the house. Lets say IF i accidentally switched the Y and G wires, (because the wires on that circuit are the same color) would that be causing a problem?
 
  #7  
Old 11-20-11, 06:48 PM
SeattlePioneer's Avatar
Banned. Rule And/Or Policy Violation
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Seattle, Wa
Posts: 4,469
Upvotes: 0
Received 1 Upvote on 1 Post
You now have created too much confusion for me to deal with. I'd recommend that you call in a service agency to put your furnace back in commission.

I can deal with problems created by the furnace very often. But what people may do is unpredictable, and potentially hazardous.

Sorry.
 
 

Thread Tools
Search this Thread
 
Ask a Question
Question Title:
Description:
Your question will be posted in: