please help, i'm freezing!

[lightning_bug]

hello.
my furnace doesn't work & i have no other heat source in my newly purchased house.
i got my heil gas furnace pilot light to light once (it has one of those electronic automatic light things), but the weather got warm for a few days so i turned off the heat at the thermostat. when i turned it back on, no air was coming through the vents, so i went down to the basement & saw that the pilot light was no longer on & i could not get it to light again. even when it was working, it would take a really long time to "fire up" & start blowing out warm air, but now it won't even light. my house was vacant for 2 years before i bought it & everyone tells me that there is a little simple inexpensive thing that is probably not working since the furnace has not been on since 2001, but i don't know what they're talking about. i even tried to light the pilot manually (even though it says quite clearly not to do that) & it still would not light, even though the flame on the torch flickered a lot when i held it by the thing where the little flame is supposed to come out of. it is very cold here & it never even gets up to 50 degrees in my house. i'm new to the area & don't have any friends yet who might be able to help. i'm freezing, & i'm broke after paying out massive amounts of money to the electrician & plumber because my wiring & plumbing did not work either. there is currently no money left to pay a heater guy & it is so cold, i can't stand the thought of waiting until november to have heat. please help!

[ApplianceTech2]

Chances are the furnace has a spark ignitor that lights a pilot flame. The spark ignitor arcs a spark which in turn lights a pilot flame. If that is correct, with power to heater off, use can of computer canned keyboard cleaner to blow out any dust on and in pilot assembly.

Power back on and retry system. Turn thermostat on and sparker may light pilot. Pilot assembly may be dirty or dusty. Lets hope so.

If above fails or there is no sparking, sparker may be defective or spark module may be defective. Try cleaning sparker rod using light weight sanding paper. Turn off electical power first or unplug heater. Also clean pilot flame sensor rod which may or may not be there. Some had them while other did not, based on year model and furnace type, etc.

Attempting to manually light the pilot does not work. No pilot gas will come out to pilot assembly unless sparker is sparking and the pilot gas part of the gas control valve is either getting power or is wroking at all. Difficult to say. Would need to have testing done on all other systems and safety devices to know if pilot gas valve in control valve is getting current and or is working or not.

This thread also has other possible causes and good suggestions:

http://homerepairforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1968

This forum has plenty: http://forum.doityourself.com/forumdisplay.php?f=26

Good Luck.
ApplianceTech2
Natural & Propane Gas Appliance Repair Consultation Service Rep.

[HayZee518]

No spark, no pilot flame. Gas valve might be clogged. There's a little tube that feeds gas to the burner assembly. There's a small brass orifice in it - could be clogged. Remove it blow it out and replace it. If the pilot initiate is not a spark gap but a carbon heating element that's supposed to glow when power applied, the resistance of the element has changed which in turn locks out the main valve. I have one on my oven on my range. Was able to get it to light a few times just by moving around the wires but eventually it gave up. Paid $80 for the heater - now it works just fine.
If, once you have a pilot flame a flame sensor needs to heat up before the main valve comes on. This could be a milli-volt generator or a flame detect tube that has a gas inside it that actuates a diaphragm within the main valve.