Hey Guys,
Last week my furnace igniter - that the thing with two stiff wires
surrounded by ceramic sleeves and a third stiff wire attached to the
face plate which then screws into the furnace housing -- was replaced
with a new one.
The sparking arc on the faulty igniter occurred between the ceramic
posts instead of at the tip where the three wires converge. The burn
mark on the center stiff wire - where there is no ceramic covering
the wire - says to me the two ceramic posts are either cracked or
loose or too fatigued to contain the electrical current and/or to
guide it to the tips where it can light the furnace burner.
Although the new igniter is installed (looks exactly like the old one
but without the burn mark), I'm wondering if the old igniter can be
salvaged.
It's a simple device with no moving parts. If it can be repaired, I'd
have a spare for next time when my new igniter crumps out and no
Suburban Service Center is nearby.
Here's my idea for salvaging/rehabilitating the old faulty igniter.
I have several tiny plastic McDonald's coffee stirrers, two tubes of
JB Weld and a new rubber gasket for between the igniter and the
furnace box.
I'd mix up a tiny amount of JB Weld; then with the coffee stirrers,
I'd carefully coat the two ceramic posts where the electricity is
escaping around the base of the posts; wait a day for the epoxy to
dry and then connect the igniter wires and test it.
With the igniter connected to the hot and ground wires from the
furnace and laying it on the floor, I'd go into the bedroom area,
turn on the thermostat and quickly walk back to furnace to see where
the sparking arc is occurring. If the sparking arc happens at the tip
of the three wires where it's supposed to spark, then I'm good to go
(maybe).
On the JB Weld package are the words "does not conduct electricity".
This leads me to believe the epoxy coating will allow the spark to
continue traveling the wire and end up at the tips the manufacturer
intended.
The coating will be applied thin enough for the gasket to fit tight
against the furnace box.
Or -- perhaps a thin coating won't do the job. In that case, I
could snip an ordinary straw (1/4" long and same diameter as the
ceramic post) around each of the two wires encased in their ceramic
sleeves; then pack epoxy in the straws. After the epoxy starts to
harden I'd slit the straws and remove them.
End result, I'd have a similar (but longer) ceramic sleeve on each of
the two stiff wires. A day later, I'd install the repaired igniter
and test it out.
To create this is simple and if it works, then it's a simple fix. But
- sometimes things that seem simple and are simple to accomplish are
only that way because I don't know enough to know that I've
overlooked a critical variable.
I'm looking for encouragement or a shot of insight before I proceed -
or a "hell no" leave it alone.
Terry