Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - Need HELP! Wife's cold! Oil heat problem! New here!!!!!

Hey all, I'm new to the forum. Just found it today and look forward to digging deeper, seems to be lots of info here. I just serviced a few things on my furnace and fired her up. She burned great for a few minutes, the flame flickered and she shut off. I am trying to bleed the line but it won't seem to bleed, I have run it many times, get very little oil. Now, I don't close the valve when it shuts off. I'll try that now, but is there something else it could be. It's a Suntech pump, incase that info is needed. Thanks for all your help.

Did you just previous to this run tank out of oil?

Need a little history on this season's fire up, like is this the first time you fired it for the season?

No oil comes out bleeder when pump runs? Have you checked filter and made sure vent to tank is not plugged? Have you tried undoing the fuel line on the pump to see if it runs out then? (If you did something like this you'd want to make sure your valve at the tank is able to shut off first!)

This is the first time I fired this season. I replaced all filters and cleaned the nozzle. I fired her up and she ran for several minutes before shutting off. Last year, I did run the tank very empty, I'm not even sure about how much fuel was in there. I was running on fumes. Any advice?

I disconnected the fuel line to the inlet on the pump and the line is not blocked. I'm assuming now that the pump is bad. I'm looking for them right now.

Before buying a new pump there are some other things to check:
With the burner running, open the bleeder port on the pump. Do you get a good full flow of oil? Foam? Air? Nothing?

When I run the furnace and open the bleeder port, a little foam, drips of oil, some air. But no steady stream. I'm completely perplexed. i ordered a new pump, only 50 bucks, figured can't go wrong having an extra pump.

You get oil to the pump if you disconnect the line from the tank, right?

The pump screen may be plugged. If the pump is an A or B model there will be (4) 5/16" hex head screws holding on the pump cover. You should be able to get a new screen and gasket at a plumbing supply store & I don't mean Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.

I'll check that out. Thanks. Anything else?

Don't try removing the pump cover unless you have a new gasket handy. There's a 99+% probability the existing one will tear when you remove the cover.

Well, I went for it. I got the cover off and didn't tear the gasket. The screen was a mess, looked like some filled it with tar, just completely caked. I cleaned the screen and put it back together, I got a nice steady stream. The furnace fired up and cycled real nice. The heats on, thanks so much for your help. I'm gonna get a new gasket and screen to have on hand.

I had another thought. Now that everything is all cleaned up and in running order, are there any adjustments that should be made on the furnace. A fuel adjustment or air?

I had another thought. Now that everything is all cleaned up and in running order, are there any adjustments that should be made on the furnace. A fuel adjustment or air?

You may need to do some Adj, but this is something that can't be done by eye.. you'll need to get someone in with the tools to check draft over fire, smoke, stack temp.. ect...

With the price of oil now days, i would call your oil company to see if they have the tools to do this, or know of someone who does.

That poor old pump screen is likely the most negleted part on an oil burner. The filter gets changed, the nozzle gets changed, & few people even know the screen is there. Glad you got it going. BTW, don't play the lottery tonight 'cause you've used up all your luck with that gasket. :D