Any HVAC Techs ? Pic heavy !

[Pallet Pete]

So this morning I had a bird get in the chimney again for the wood stove and well he got his goose cooked in a rather disgusting manner so no pics of that one. smelled good though . I had to fire up the furnace and it has had some issues I have not noticed before so I will try to explain them.
The first issue is there is no manufacturer stamp anywhere I can find and from the HVAC guy down town he says that it is a 25 year old furnace. ( I have no idea if that is true or not and cant find any info online ) It already runs like crap makes a lot of noise squeeks and shakes the hole darn house too.

1) Turn on the furnace and warms up the house.
2) Furnace completes cycle.
3) Thermostate goes to cold temp to start new cycle.
4) Furnace does not turn on.
5) Turn thermostat off & on
6) Furnace turns on and sometimes completes cycle sometimes does not.


Ok so my first thought was it is a faulty thermostat so I went and bought a basic spring one to replace the digital and see. So far it has worked better but not well ! I have had to turn the thermostat off & on twice to get it going. My next conclusion is it must be something in the furnace. Anybody have ideas ? Here are some pics of the furnace and thermostats. At this point I do not have the money to replace it and refuse to take a loan seeing as we use a wood stove only really need it for backup anyhow so we would like to fix it if possible.

Thanks
Pete

EDIT )

I just found a manual taped to the back of the water heater and it looks like the manual for the furnace . ( Previous owners put a lot of things in really odd places too ! ) It says Models GY85 / GM8s / LY8s / LM8s / LF8 ( single stage uplfow / Horizontal / LoNOx ) What does this all mean ? There is still no name on the manual either !

 

[woodgeek]

Check the 24VAC supply. If it was running low, the digital tstat might act flaky, and even the coil one might not reliably fire the furnace controller?

Just put an AC meter from R to C, or red to common, at the tstat. IF its low, then you have to find it...prob in the furnace...but relatively easy/cheap to replace.

 

[Pallet Pete]

I will do that now and see thanks woodgeek.

Pete

 

[Jags]

Also - check your vacuum switch for the exhaust. If that switch gets flaky it will not allow the furnace to cycle back on. I had one go bad that had the same stuff going on that you are explaining. Also check the tubing that goes to it. It could be loose or have a crack in the tubing.

 

[Pallet Pete]

Thanks Jags I am gonna check that next ! The manual says see page 28 for vacuum switch hose connections except there is no page 28 it ends at 26. I see what looks like the switch though.

Pete

 

[Jags]

If you can catch it when it is not cycling back on (when it should be), if you momentarily disconnect the switch (electrical, not vacuum) and the furnace tries to start up, you will have your culprit.

If not - ignore me, cuz I have no other ideas.

 

[BrotherBart]

Ain't a HVAC tech but my google-fu tells me that it is a York Luxaire furnace.

 

[Pallet Pete]

Thanks BB I just finished googling it too ! The furnace is officially dead now It wont run or do anything for that matter so I guess I am gonna have to go get a HVAC company to look at it. If it is an expensive repair I am just gonna install a wood on furnace instead although I have no idea where I would put that much wood !

Pete

 

[Pallet Pete]

Well tech is coming Wednesday so thanks for the help anyway guys it looks like it is shot. It smells of electrical burn really bad now so I just flipped the breaker and thats all for now.

Thanks again
Pete

 

[Jags]

Good call.

 

[laynes69]

We had the exact same issues as you do. When we called a hvac tech, they told us the gas valve was faulty. At 450 dollars later they left. The next day we were having the same exact problems and was told it was a bad exhaust fan. At this point we were told to leave the cover off which was dangerous. Six months later it occured to me that the first burner would fire but no others. In the end, it was some corrosion between the burners. The furnace hadn't been used enough and the intake and exhaust were open to the outdoors. More than likely condensation had caused the corrosion. I made a tool from a piece of sheetmetal that was long and hooked back where I could get in-between the thin parts of the burners to open the gap. Dad had problems for a few years before selling us the house and I had problems for a few years also before correcting it. Many techs couldn't find the problem. Since I found the issue the furnace fires every time, not randomly like it used to.

 

[Pallet Pete]

Well I had two techs out to look-

First tech the chain is bad on the drive wheel coupling ?????

Me: Its direct drive

Tech: O is it !

Me: Yes I pulled the blower out of the bottom of the furnace and cleaned it.

It ended with me
It ended with him leaving very angry and me wanting to get him fired needless to say they wanted $1000 for the repair .
The second fed me just as much BS !
Finally I had my Father volunteer to look
-Certified Master Mech
-Certified Electrician
-Cleaned it red the flashing red light cleaned the whole thing changed a 5 dollar relay problem solved !

It is nice to have family !

Thanks for all the help & suggestions guys.

Pete

 

[laynes69]

That's great news! I was going to say the furnace looked too new to replace, but things do go wrong from time to time. I've been able to troubleshoot most things on our furnace. I don't trust the local companies after dealing with them, and getting ripped off. Good things worked out!

 

[velvetfoot]

Whatever gets done, just be careful about gas leaks; they'be seem been in the news a little too much of late.