Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - old 1960s gas furnace wont kick on.

its a 2 wire setup. i tried jumpering the wires and got nothing.
looked at it and studied it for a few days but couldnt get nowhere.
called repair man and he came out jumpered it downstairs bypassing the transformer and it came right on.

he came upstairs and jumpered it at the thermostat where i had been doing the same thing and it came right on.

he said no charge ill tell them you canceled and he left.

about an hour later i tried to show my wife and i get nothing.

this is an older furnace with a pilot and by came right on for him i mean the flame kicked up right away.

anyone have any ideas? ive tried jumpering downstairs right where he did and it still doesnt work. it seems like it was a fluke that it came on for him but im hoping there is something i am missing.

i watched him the whole time and he literally looked at the pilot looked at the blower and then jumpered the wires.

Hi hulk:

Did you try jumpering downstairs again? Exactly what is being jumpered? Is was very nice of him to not charge you. You might call him back.

jumpering the red and white wire to force the gas to kick up which turns the blower on after it gets so hot.

i did try it downstairs and im getting nothing.

its just like he was never here to me except that he was here and i saw it work for him.

If you can jumper the red and white wires at the thermostat, and then it works, then it means either the thermostat is not tuned up far enough or it is junk. No two ways about it. This means that power is coming up the wall from the furnace low voltage hookup board in basement, okay. But then is not returning to the furnace low voltage hookup board by the white wire. The only thing in the way is the thermostat. It would have to be the thermostat, in anybody elses situation

BUT in your case, you can't be too hasty because you also said that when you tried to jumper R and W in the basement, like he did, it won't come on. And it should. Is the red thermostat wire hooked to R and the white thermostat wire hooked to W on that little hookup board in the furnace, where you have been jumpering?

Also in your post you said early in the post that he jumpered around the transformer by jumping R and W. Well, he really bypassed the thermostat, not transformer.

where he jumpered in the basement is not on or in the furnace the transformer is on the ceiling about 3 feet from the furnace.
the white does not hook up anywhere except straight from the furnace to the thermostat its the red that goes through the transformer.

Thermostat >>>Transformer>>Furnace

he touched the white to the red on the transformer.

i forgot to mention that it has worked fine for 2 years and it just stopped working over the summer sometime.
we didnt notice until i replaced the filter and was testing it out.

my furnace is so old even if the wire spots were marked you cant read none of the stuff on it.
its all scratched up.

the only things i can read off of it is williamson super 523

Williamson was a good furnace. He didn't jump out the transformer, he jumped ut 2 wires. Call him back.

Getting tired and ready to call it quits soon. Too much thinking today. Where then does the red wire at the transformer go to? You said the white, from the transformer goes to the furnace. Is this a simple thermsotat that only is a 4 wire hookup with the 2 bigger wires on one side of the transformer for 120v and neutral, and the other two are the low voltage (the red and white)?

yes.

on the transformer there is the 110 going in and then there is a red going both directions 1 up to the thermostat and 1 going down to the furnace.
the white goes all the way from the furnace to the thermostat.

usually jumpering the red and the white closes the circuit and tells the gas to turn on but that isnt working right now.

we have someone else coming out tomorrow but since this original repairman got it to fire right up im hoping to save on the $80 housecall and figure out why it worked for him and not me.

can the transformer be going bad?

the repair company rescheduled for monday so im still trying to figure it out if anyone has any ideas.

In the basement, locate the red and white that go upstairs. Jump those 2. Be careful not to jumper across the transformer or you will burn it out. Once you get the right pair jumpered, check the gas valve terminals to see if you're getting 24 volts there.

im not getting anything at the gas valve terminals.

You have a test meter? It sounds for some reason that someone has 2 red wires for the transformer's low voltage rather than a red and a white. Anyway - at the low voltage (smaller wires) terminals on the transformer, which are both red in your case, do you get 24 volts beween the two of these? You should, if you are geting 120 to the line side of the transformer.

i dont have something that tells me how many volts it just lights up if there is a current.

i get a current on the breaker side of the transformer but i have no current on the furnace side of the transformer.

im guessing its the transformer.

do i need any special transformer or can i use the 18v transformer that lowes has.

No, you can't use an 18 volt doorbell transformer; it has to be a 24 volt transformer with a mimimum of 40va. You cannot troubleshoot effectively with an NCV tester.