New water heater or burner?

[Quince]

I have a 1968 Overlander. The hot water heater gave me trouble so I took it apart with good intentions but believe I lost a critical component. The heater doesn’t leak, but the burner assembly needs to be replaced at the least. I’m open to replacing the entire system, but definitely do not want a white plastic panel outside the water heater. Any advice on retrofitting in new burner assembly to an old 6 gallon tank? Maybe an on demand system?

[rowiebowie]

What are your symptoms?

[Quince]

Big fat uncontrolled flame. Think i lost the little restrictor? When it did work, the pilot light would go out fairly often, which was a pain in the butt

[rowiebowie]

Originally Posted by Quince

Big fat uncontrolled flame. Think i lost the little restrictor? When it did work, the pilot light would go out fairly often, which was a pain in the butt

That helps. When I had trouble with my '2012 Suburban 6 gal. it would be hard to light and keep lit. Turned out to be a mud-dauber nest in the combustion chamber.


After I cleaned it out, I was still having trouble lighting and a very noisy yellow flame. I removed the plenum and it looked fine, no rust, dirt, or obstruction. I even ran a pin through the small opening, but nothing seemed out of order. Reinstalled, but still had bad flame.


Installed a new plenum (looked the same as the old one) and that solved the problem. I still couldn't tell you what changed, but it lights on 2nd or third try and has a nice quiet blue flame now.

[Wazbro]

If your old tank is over 30 years old I think it would be worth replacing. They do oxidize through eventually. You "might" be able to use your old door. Might also be able to buy a silver one, use to be able to I haven't looked for a while.