trouble shooting suburban SF-30

[pljlbis]

I'm having a furnace issue on my Suburban SF-30. It won't start, I can hear the igniter clicking but won't light. I thought it might be gas valve so I replaced it. No Luck!!!  What I did find out is if I unplug my camper from 120v, my furnace will run right. If I put a very poor battery on my camper and plug 120v back in. The furnace will run. With good battery and having 120v plugged in battery voltage is 13.31v. Furnace won't run.
Good battery and don't plugged in to 120v or a poor battery plugged into 120v the voltage in battery is 12.98 to 13.06v furnace works. Was wondering if it could be a bad circuit board in my furnace or what it might be? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Paul

 

[Henry J Fate]

Could possibly be a bad board or a bad connection to the board. I cannot say with any certainty that a higher voltage would prevent the gas valve from opening due to a bad board component but I guess it is possible.

If you can get at the board connector, pull it off and leave it off for about 30 seconds then put it back on. Try that with a good battery and see if that makes any difference. Sometimes a simple connector reset will fix the problem.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

13.3v is not considered high, or even the high side of normal, so the board and the valve ought to work fine.  Per the Suburban installation manual, anywhere in the range of 10.5v to 13.5v is satisfactory voltage. It actually ought to be good up to around 14.4v, but that's not in their spec sheet.

I'm wondering if your converter/charger is putting out nasty 12v power, e.g. a lot of AC ripple on top of the nominal 12vdc or fluctuating voltages.  Using it successfully in conjunction with a poor battery makes me suspicious, since a bad battery sucks a lot of the available power form the converter to use in charging.  What year/make/model of RV and what model of converter/charger are we talking about here?

 

[pljlbis]

Gary,
I have  1999 Forest River Wildwood. My converter is a Magnetek 6300A series Model 6345. I believe it is my converter is bad. I unplugged my camper from 120 v source. Took my car and hooked jumper cables to my RV battery. I then check voltage it was 13.7 v and furnace fired right up, then I let battery charge a little more it was at 13.96 v  furnace fired right up again. So I'm looking to replace my converter.
Thanks Paul

 

[Ernie n Tara]

You also need to realize that a battery acts as a giant filter capacitor so even a defective battery helps.

Ernie

 

[Alfa38User]

Took my car and hooked jumper cables to my RV battery. I then check voltage it was 13.7 v and furnace fired right up,

Your car must have been running. The only way to get that voltage (13.7V) would be to have a source that is charging the battery.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

The Magnetek 63xx converters are junk by todays power standards - they are notorious for simultaneously providing limited charging and the risk of overcharging. Plus it delivers unfiltered power.  Definitely get either an upgrade kit for the 63xx or totally replace it with something like a PD 4645 or Boondocker 1245.  Here is one source and some options:

http://www.bestconverter.com/Upgrade-Kits-for-MagnetekParallax_c_64.html

 

[pljlbis]

I ordered a new converter yesterday and received it today. I installed it today and furnace is working great . Thanks for everything!!!!

 

[Rene T]

That's awesome. Thanks for getting back to us,