White-Rodgers Type 3098-134 Automatic Pilot E3

[Lisa]

      Trane furnace. The wire from the thermostat signals the pilot control to spark. Then I believe the pilot gas valve is supposed to open, allowing the spark to ignite the pilot. Then the main gas valve opens and the pilot lights the main burner.   The problem seems to be that the pilot gas valve does not open up because it doesn't get its electric signal and the spark keeps sparking instead.

    There is a loose wire connection.  Jiggle it and the pilot lights.  A wedged staple did the trick last winter.   Now sometimes the furnace shuts down in the main burn and starts sparking again before the thermostat setting is reached, and jiggling the wires to start it at all is increasingly tricky.

    The second to last picture in the link below, the plastic connector with the blue, white and black wires coming out is where the loose connection is.

http://www.hvacmechanic.com/forums/resservice/messages/26201.htm

      That guy posted on three different forums with the same problem but never said if or how he fixed it!

      A repairman from the gas company said last year that the whole automatic pilot would have to be replaced at a cost of several hundred dollars. I am wondering if it is possible to fix just the wiring? Can I pull out that plastic connector holding the wires or will I break a soldered connection (which I can't fix.)

      We have had very bad luck with local HVAC companies - one failed to fix a blower timing problem that was just the limit control on the wrong setting; the other diagnosed a blown thermal fuse as a busted limit control (interpreted the voltage results dead wrong.) You, oh Samurai, solved that last one two years ago; I replaced the fuse and the company refunded me.   So now I turn to you again.  If it's an electrical problem only I can handle it, but I don't think I'm up to replacing the whole pilot and dealing with gas lines.

[ACtechGUY]

The white plastic connector going into the gas valve should come out. It could be just a bent connector in the white piece or the white connector not seated all the way. If that turns out to be ok then it likely that the bad connection is internal to the gas valve. If that is the case then you need a new gas valve. "Thou must never take apart a gas valve unless thy would like to maybe wake up with humble abode on fire."