That time of year again.....Monitor 441 issues.

[gearsoup]

Hello everyone

Issue: Monitor 441 won't ignite. It goes through it's start cycle, 3 burner indicator lights come on. They go out for a few minutes, then all 5 come back on blinking.

History:

Last year, it was acting up on me. Flame color wasn't a nice purple, more like a orange, sooty color. I figured the unit was getting old and in need of a rebuild. Following the guide on jimmy55's site, it wasn't that hard to do. I bought the kit off of eBay. The seller was Hickory Home and Gardens. After I got it back together, it ran like a champ, and we had some cold days, that was certain.
Early April, the lights went to blinking, like they are now. First thing I did was check the oil level....
Yup, empty. Not bad, one winter on a tank (this heater is in my garage/machine shop)
I figured that was the issue, and I was low on funds, so I just left it as is until the past week when I finally got the tank filled. After it was filled, I tried starting it, but same results. I figured it was filthy.
The first thing I did was clean out the filter at the tank, got all the sludge out. After that, I cleaned the filter on the unit. Yeah, it was nasty.
After that, I disconnected the copper tube that runs from the "fuel pump" to the burn chamber. I applied compressed air to one end and verified that there was nothing blocking it. Put it all back together. Checked the flame sensing rod, it was clean, but I took some fine sandpaper to it anyways. Put it all back together and it fired right up and made me happy. That was yesterday.

Last night, I put it in auto mode, had it hold a temp of 60 all night. At 4 am this morning, I had it programmed to go to 68. When I got in my shop at 5 this morning, sure enough, it was running nicely.
Around 7:30 am, I felt it getting cold, so I went over to investigate. Lights blinking......Unplugged it for a couple hours, plugged it back in, same results. No flame. I can smell K1, most definitely. It just doesn't seem to be igniting.

Any thoughts? Being a Saturday, I'm kinda out of luck finding a service guy to talk too...

I'd like to trouble shoot this myself so I can learn more about the unit. But, I also have a machine shop to run and I might just have to bite the bullet and get a repair guy in here. Any recommendations for a guy in Maine? I can bring the unit to them, or they can come here, no matter to me....

[hawkins111]

Remove the wires for the igniter from the board (B connectors) Use your OHM meter, you should see 12.7 OHM's. IF not, the igniter is burned. If the igniter is good. remove the fuel line from the burner and try to start the heater. When the status light are steady fuel should come out of the pipe. If there is not fuel, you could have a dirty filter, air locked filter, air safety switch issue (hose off), constant level valve stuck on magnet (push the button one time for one second), No fuel. Tom

[gearsoup]

Dumb question, but do I use the OHM meter while the unit is starting up it's cycle, or just as it sits idle, in a cold, damp garage?

Nevermind.....I checked it with the unit ON, but at idle. I am getting 13.9 OHM's. I checked it several different times, and it was always the same. One time I did get a 0L, but I don't think I had the meter probe inserted properly.
On to the fuel delivery......

[gearsoup]

There is no fuel coming out. Arrrrgh.....
I can feel the pump clicking away, but nothing comes out.

[gearsoup]

Well, I took the filter out, clean as a whistle. Checked to make sure the tank was actually flowing and perhaps no shut off. It was fine.
I pressed the little red button on the side and it felt as if something......dropped, if that makes sense. There was a slight click to it that did not repeat itself a second time. After that, fuel started coming out when I turned it on. Button things back up, it's now running. Thank you!

[HayZee518]

That red button you pressed, resets the float. There's a metal tab on top of the float. When the float goes way up, it contacts a magnet which holds the needle valve closed. That's why you werent geting any fuel into the bowl. Next time you take out the pump itself, look on the bottom of it. There is a small SS screen there. Clean this once in a while with gumout. A pump starving for fuel will make loud clicks. A pump pumping fuel will make dull clicking sounds, almost like thumps. When you reset the computer, you don't have to keep it off for minutes or hours. A simple out-in will do.