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1950's Furnace Gas Valve Replacement - Honeywell

leeannpraud
leeannpraud Member Posts: 8
in Gas Heating

I'm hoping for a miracle! I have a 1960's furnace that I had cleaned when I had my ducts cleaned. The furnace was working fine and then when the serviceman was finished my burner will no longer ignite. I am led to believe that something has gone wrong with the Gas Valve. It is a Honeywell and the size is 1/2, pressure is 8 oz, and type VS87A1X4X1 CO.

Does anyone have any suggestions where I might find a replacement valve or an idea of one that I may be able to install that would be interchangeable?

I sure don't want to replace my furnace if I don't have to. Besides being inefficient it worked so well!

Thank you,

LeeAnn

Comments

  • Big Ed_4
    Big Ed_4 Member Posts: 3,019

    Did you try to lite the pilot ?

    There was an error rendering this rich post.

    mattmia2leeannpraud
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 24,859

    Picture please. Valve and furnace in general, but any data plates or numbers on either the valve or the furnace.

    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
    mattmia2
  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 10,945

    does it have a separate safety switch you have to reset after you light the pilot?

  • retiredguy
    retiredguy Member Posts: 977

    The typical VS87A was a powerpile controlled gas valve. But as @Jamie Hall wrote, please provide pictures. I did see someone on E'bay selling one for about $1200.00. Yikes

    mattmia2
  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 10,945
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1812479#Comment_1812479

    or just replace it with a millivolt combination valve… Which you already know

  • leeannpraud
    leeannpraud Member Posts: 8
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  • leeannpraud
    leeannpraud Member Posts: 8

    Here are some pictures of the inside. The pilot light is on and the blower fan turns on. The burner won't ignite when the thermostat is turned all the way up.

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 10,945

    Did you press the red reset button after you lit the pilot? did you check the voltage from the thermopile?

  • ethicalpaul
    ethicalpaul Member Posts: 6,669

    Did you ask the service guy what he did to break it?

    NJ Steam Homeowner.
    Free NJ and remote steam advice: https://heatinghelp.com/find-a-contractor/detail/new-jersey-steam-help/
    See my sight glass boiler videos: https://bit.ly/3sZW1el

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 10,945

    You also have the manual main valve on in some pictures and off in others. it is on when the handle is parallel to the pipe

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 10,945

    Actually, looking at that safety chain, i think you have to press and hold the red button while you light the pilot.

    PRRSuperTechleeannpraud
  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 10,945

    Oh, and if you figure it out, once it is working watch the flame from the burner when the blower starts. The flame shouldn't change at all when the blower starts. If it does the heat exchanger is compromised and it is immediate replacement time for the furnace. Since the pilot probably went out with the duct cleaning I am concerned that the heat exchanger may be bad and the duct cleaning was sucking air through the fire side of the HX.

    SuperTechleeannpraud
  • leeannpraud
    leeannpraud Member Posts: 8
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1812798#Comment_1812798

    I did not check the voltage. Is there a separate red button that I would push or is it also the red button used to light the pilot light?

  • leeannpraud
    leeannpraud Member Posts: 8
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1812801#Comment_1812801

    The pilot light is lit so that's a positive!

  • leeannpraud
    leeannpraud Member Posts: 8

    Thank you. I was messing with it to see what happened with it on and off. Oddly enough when it was on the pilot light was smaller and when it was off the flame was larger.

  • leeannpraud
    leeannpraud Member Posts: 8

    I did and he had no clue. He turned on the furnace when he arrived, turned it off to clean and service, lit the pilot light again, turned the thermostat up and burner would not kick on.

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 10,945

    The second step is to check the voltage of the thermopile with a millivoltmeter.

  • leeannpraud
    leeannpraud Member Posts: 8
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1812798#Comment_1812798

    So this was exactly the issue. A repairman came and held down the red button for about a minute and the burner kicked on and the furnace is working fine again! Thanks for all your suggestions and ideas. My old furnace lives to tell another tale!

    mattmia2
  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 10,945

    You need to hold the button until the pilot heats the thermopile enough to produce enough current to hold the safety valve open and open the main valve if the thermostat is set to call for heat.

    Do the test where you watch the main burner when the blower comes on to make sure the heat exchanger isn't leaking.

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