H2O heater not lighting

[tlavergne]

I have a 1978 Ambassador (28'). The water heater has never given me any trouble. We were camping this past weekend and initially the water heater was working as normal. After the 2nd night it would not relight. I could light it with a match so I know that fuel is not the problem but it will not light itself. I can hear the igniter clicking. New igniter? New circuit board? I will check connections when I get home from work this evening.
Thanks.
Tom

[myboyburt]

Originally Posted by tlavergne

I have a 1978 Ambassador (28'). The water heater has never given me any trouble. We were camping this past weekend and initially the water heater was working as normal. After the 2nd night it would not relight. I could light it with a match so I know that fuel is not the problem but it will not light itself. I can hear the igniter clicking. New igniter? New circuit board? I will check connections when I get home from work this evening.
Thanks.
Tom

We just went through this type of issue with the refrigerator in our 1977 Argosy (2 year old refrigerator). The re-igniter would click but no spark could be seen. After doing some research on troubleshooting RV refrigerator problems on the web we found the solution to our issue. There is a ceramic piece (unsure what it is called) that was damp. All we needed to do was to light the refrigerator manually and let it run for a while. Once we did this the ceramic piece dried out and the refrigerator now starts every time. Not sure a water heater has the same setup, but thought it may be worth a shot.

[tlavergne]

Originally Posted by myboyburt

We just went through this type of issue with the refrigerator in our 1977 Argosy (2 year old refrigerator). The re-igniter would click but no spark could be seen. After doing some research on troubleshooting RV refrigerator problems on the web we found the solution to our issue. There is a ceramic piece (unsure what it is called) that was damp. All we needed to do was to light the refrigerator manually and let it run for a while. Once we did this the ceramic piece dried out and the refrigerator now starts every time. Not sure a water heater has the same setup, but thought it may be worth a shot.

I lit the water heater manually when we needed it so it had an opportunity to dry out if that was the problem. Much like your problem, though, as I can hear the igniter clicking but can see no spark. I am thinking that I am not getting enough voltage to the igniter to create the spark.

[myboyburt]

Originally Posted by tlavergne

I lit the water heater manually when we needed it so it had an opportunity to dry out if that was the problem. Much like your problem, though, as I can hear the igniter clicking but can see no spark. I am thinking that I am not getting enough voltage to the igniter to create the spark.

Right, that could be it. The troubleshooting info I found on the web listed low voltage as a potential cause. The other thing it listed was the ceramic thing could have a hairline crack which could cause it not to spark.

I'll run down to the barn and get the information I found on the web (left it there after working on our problem last night). It should list the URL, I'll forward it to you.

[richinny]

...... and just make sure the spark is where the gas is.

[myboyburt]

I found the troubleshooting info at: Electronic Igniter

[Bambi75th]

We had a smiliar problem with our water heater. Maybe I was just lucky but all I did was clean and reseat the contacts on several push on contacts and it starting working again. That was several trips and many thousand miles ago. Np reoccuracnes.

[tlavergne]

Originally Posted by myboyburt

I found the troubleshooting info at: Electronic Igniter

Thanks for the info. I hope to work on this problem tonight after work. I will post what I find out.
Tom

[tlavergne]

It was a bad circuit board. Put in a new one and it fired right off. Thanks all for the help. I learn a bit more every day.
Tom