Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - electric ignitor trouble

i have an old williamson temp o matic furnace with a electric ignitor. the pilot lights, stays on about five seconds and then goes out. a few seconds later this process happens again. this goes on and on and on, never staying on for more than five or ten seconds. the ignitor continually clicks with sparks coming out of the end of it like it wants to ignite even the short time it is lit. any ideas help!!!

flame sensor, or thermocouple, which ever this furnaces uses to sense that the pilot is lit.

the flame sensor is not the same as the pilot relite is it

Something doesn't add up here. You say you have a pilot. But you also say you have clicking to make an ignitor go? You shouldn't need an ignitor at this stage, if you have pilot already going - I don't think. It's either, usually one or the other: Pilot type ignition where a sensor senses the pilot flame for a moment, then the gas valve opens and WOOF (fire). There is an ignition system, usually a sparker that gets the pilot going. Then, no more click for an ignitor - rather then the gas valve opens.

OR - there is the hot surface ignitor which requires no pilot and when the ignitor gets up to full glow, the gas valve opens, and WOOF (fire) and as long as the flame probe in the flame senses good flame, it keeps going.

Let us know if you can clarrify a little.

Your system does not realize the pilot is lit. That is why the clicking continues. On some systems there is some sort of rod as part of the pilot assembly. Look at the pilot assembly to see if you see such a rod. If there is, remove the pilot assembly & clean it with a piece of scotch brite or fine steel wool. Before reinstalling, make sure the mounting area is free of rust. A bad ground, due to rust, can also cause the same symptom.