Sunshine! Glorious sunshine! Now we have figured out what we have been doing wrong. We have been on the wrong side of the Cascade Mountain Range.
We have been schmoozing around the west side of the mountains; Portland, Chimicum and Sequim; and it has been cold, wet, rainy, misty, drizzling and 20 degrees below the seasonal averages. If that were not bad enough we voluntarily chose a dry-camp site at the Coho Park at Chimicum while we were visiting our friends, Judy and Henry. Bad decision! After a nice evening and dinner with Judy and Henry we returned to our bone cold motor home and nudged the thermostat. The fan roared to life but the flame fizzled. It was well after generator hours in the park so we had to hop in our bed and snuggle for dear life.
Next morning we warmed the kitchen with the cook stove and eventually were able to run the generator and the electric heater. From there we went on to visit Judy’s sister, Genaveve, and her family in Sequim Washington. We snuggled Arcturus into their front yard and hooked an electrical cord into their garage. We kept popping their circuit breaker until we found a better circuit in the back yard.
I proceeded to extract the furnace from underneath the refrigerator, and carefully traced every circuit and verified every switch and interlock. I was able to isolate the problem to either the circuit board or the gas valve or both. We did some calling in Sequim and Port Angeles and were unable to find any replacements. Next we plotted our route for Monday morning and started calling parts places along the way. We found a replacement for the circuit board called a Dinosaur board. (Our RV friends should take note, this is a good replacement option for the Suburban furnace.)
When we picked up the board at Camping World in Fife Washington it was pouring rain. I was going to make the replacement in their parking lot in case I needed the valve also. I extracted the furnace from under the refrigerator again and was ready to pop in the circuit board when I came across a sheet of instructions for how to rewire everything for different makes and models of furnaces. Our furnace wasn’t listed. I carefully inserted the instructions back in the box. Slid the furnace back in the locker without installing it and we headed for Wenatchee.
The rain stopped when we reached the top of Snoqualmie Pass and by the time we reached Wenatchee Washington the sun was out, the temperature was in the 70’s and I was much calmer. We set up camp and then I looked over the Dinosaur board again. There were pins and plugs for every wire on the old board. They were indexed so you couldn’t put them on the wrong pin. I hunched over so that guy Murphy couldn’t see what I was doing and I swapped pin for pin, plug for plug and kicked ‘er on. The fan rev’ed up, the light winked and at the exact moment it was supposed to, the solenoid snapped the gas valve open. Glory Be!
Oh yes it took both Judy and I another 45 minutes to squeeze it back into it’s hidey hole under the refrigerator and hook the gas pipe back up, but we have heat now. Life is good! Check out the photos below.
We will continue to cruise about eastern Washington on our way to a family reunion in Colville WA. We will get to see many of our relatives over the next few weeks.
Bye now and may your furnace always come on when you nudge the thermostat.
Gary and Judy
