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Old 03-28-2016, 01:38 PM   #1
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Help Getting Furnace Going

Have old Suburban Furnace on a 1996 SMB. Previous owners never ran it so no clue what condition it is in, but here is what I've found and hoping for suggestions.

1) Propane fine - I can run stove without issue.
2) Fuse appears fine - have swapped 15 amp fuse just to make sure, but no obvious breaks, etc. All wires look to be coming in fine and connected.
3) Detectors off - the fuse was pulled on the CO2 and LP detectors as the prev owner obviously had no intentions of using the furnace? I plugged a fuse in there and that works fine as does all the other DC items off distro center.

So with that I can't get the fan to start. Thermostat kicks on and I hear that 'click' for heat, but the fan never starts so obviously everything that comes after that doesn't kick in.

So looking for suggestions? Could the owner have uplugged or disabled the fan? Anything else that could be going on? The Distro Center seems to run everything else fine - lights, fan, fridge, detectors, etc.

Dumb follow up is where is the furnace fan located. I've pulled some vent covers and don't see anything obvious. I haven't owned this long enough to dig too deep so if anybody could save me some time, effort - where is the ignitor located (under fridge), fan location, etc. on typical (again, older) SMB?

Thanks much for any help.

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Old 03-28-2016, 01:47 PM   #2
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Try removing the thermostat and just twisting the two wires together.. I had a faulty thermostat that would sort of turn on the furnace, but never call for heat.. so you'd get clicking, but never any heat/fan.
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Old 03-28-2016, 01:49 PM   #3
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Also, the burner can get dirty and won't flow properly, so try and clean that.. there's various methods you can google.
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Old 03-28-2016, 02:01 PM   #4
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Try removing the thermostat and just twisting the two wires together.. I had a faulty thermostat that would sort of turn on the furnace, but never call for heat.. so you'd get clicking, but never any heat/fan.

Thanks, also forgot to mention I replaced the thermostat last night as that was a suspicion of mine. But no change even after new thermostat.
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Old 03-28-2016, 02:21 PM   #5
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It would help to know what year and layout you have in your rig. In our 89 the furnace is under the passenger side dinette seat. On other layouts it could be under the gaucho or under the rear seat. It is basically a sheet metal box about 12" to 18" wide and 20" deep. On the outside of the van there will be an aluminum plate with two holes in it that are for the burner intake and exhaust. The plate will be about three feet away form the fuel filler on the drivers side or anyplace behind the side door on the passenger side.
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Old 03-28-2016, 02:45 PM   #6
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Make sure the battery powering the furnace is charged up. Try running the furnace with the van running.
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Old 03-28-2016, 03:29 PM   #7
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Originally Posted by larrie View Post
It would help to know what year and layout you have in your rig. In our 89 the furnace is under the passenger side dinette seat. On other layouts it could be under the gaucho or under the rear seat. It is basically a sheet metal box about 12" to 18" wide and 20" deep. On the outside of the van there will be an aluminum plate with two holes in it that are for the burner intake and exhaust. The plate will be about three feet away form the fuel filler on the drivers side or anyplace behind the side door on the passenger side.
So it is a 96 Dodge Ram in the EB10 configuration.



Thanks for the info as this helps a lot.
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Old 03-28-2016, 03:30 PM   #8
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Make sure the battery powering the furnace is charged up. Try running the furnace with the van running.
I'll try this - as mentioned everything else is running but it sounds like the draw of the furnace/fan may be significantly higher.
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Old 03-28-2016, 03:48 PM   #9
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It would help to know what year and layout you have in your rig. In our 89 the furnace is under the passenger side dinette seat. On other layouts it could be under the gaucho or under the rear seat. It is basically a sheet metal box about 12" to 18" wide and 20" deep. On the outside of the van there will be an aluminum plate with two holes in it that are for the burner intake and exhaust. The plate will be about three feet away form the fuel filler on the drivers side or anyplace behind the side door on the passenger side.
This may be a highly stupid question, but I don't see any of the two things you note - no metal box and no holes on the outside of the van (outside of the sink drain vent). I didn't think heat was an "option" especially with a propane tank on board, but based on the above I may be literally "out in the cold".

Do you have a pic of the plate? I imagine it would be fairly obvious, but based on above I'm starting to wonder. It isn't going to kill me not to have heat, but it would be a nice to have.

On a side note, with shore power plugged in I can't get the A/C blower to kick on either on the A/C side.
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Old 03-28-2016, 04:01 PM   #10
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It'll look like this on the outside: http://casitaclub.com/forums/uploads...1334525797.jpg
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