Central Air Blower Fan won't start

[matty1stop]

Not sure if it is related to the problem, but I had a new oil furnace installed over the winter. The system worked fine for months, blower, furnace etc. I went to turn on the Central Air for the first time this year and the outside unit comes on, but the blower never kicks on. I switched the fan from AUTO to ON at the thermostat and it still won't turn on. When I do switch it to ON there is a loud click that appears to be coming from the wiring overhead.

If anyone knows how I could troubleshoot this I would greatly appreciate it. It is in the high 90's today and the wife isn't pleased.

The guy who installed the furnace has since moved south and the company that took over can't send a guy out for another couple days.

Thanks very much,

Matt

[ACtechGUY]

Seems like you may have an artifact leftover from your prior heating system. It likely had external relays to bring on the fan . The control system was likely never reconnected in the correct way or it may no longer apply to the new system or just simply no longer works.

The good news is that you can do something until a tech (Hopefully a very experienced Tech) can fix the problem.

If you open up your furnace , somewhere you will see a circuit board with a terminal strip . There should be thermostat wires connected to the terminal strip. They will have printed on the circiut board the letters R , C , G , Y , W

Providing there is nothing wrong with the furnace control board or the fan motor here is what you do to get the fan motor going....

First turn off whatever switch you need to ensure that the furnace is not powered.

Find a piece of wire that will fit under those terminals. You need to place "Jumper" wire between the terminals labeled R G .

So now you have a wire going from R to G terminals. Turn power back on .

What this does is tell the heater to turn on the fan. If that does not work , you have a problem with the heater itself.

[matty1stop]

Tried the jumper but no luck. Fan still wouldn't turn on. There is a Honeywell thermostat looking thing that the wiring is connected to. It is set at 32. Any chance it would be something simple like an adjustment to that?

[matty1stop]

Let me know if a picture of the wiring would help

Thanks again for replying,

Matt

[ACtechGUY]

Sorry , that jumper had to make the blower come on regardless of what any thermostat is set for. By installing the jumper you were bypassing any external controls.

If it did not come on you are dealing with an issue with the furnace itself(a bad part or loose connection in the heater) .

** after you installed the jumper you did put whatever panels you took off back on, right?? many heaters have door switches that cut power to the heater unless the panels are on.

[matty1stop]

The R , C , G , Y , W connections were not behind a panel they were attached to a piece of wood nailed to the ceiling joists.

[jb8103]

Good Lord.

[matty1stop]

Are you saying my only option left is to pray?

The tech called to reschedule he should be here in about an hour. I was hoping this would be covered by warranty but since they are not the company that actually did the work, as I mentioned they are an existing company that assumed his business when he moved, I'm anticipating them not wanting to give me a freebie and I don't know what should or shouldn't be covered. He could tell me it was the flux capacitor and I wouldn't know any better.

[applianceman18007260692]

post some pictures of the controls and blower so we can see what you have.

[matty1stop]

OK here's the story. Tech came out and after a couple of hours realized that the system had never been hooked up to work with the A/C. At that point his boss told him to not work on it and that he had to leave to go on another call. I called the company and they said that they only purchased the client list from the original installer they would not honor any type of warranty on his work. The guy who did the install has moved from Boston to South Carolina. Because his sister married my brother I was able to get a phone number for him. I called him and he said essentially that he never hooked it up because it was cold out and he was in a hurry so I should pay the $150+ for them to do the work I already paid him to do. Looks like I am SOL. He said it would take them 2 minutes to do. I asked him if he could walk me through it and he said 'no.'

The furnace is a REgal Hi-boy with a Carlin E/Z-1 burner. I have attached pictures of the wiring. If someone could help me with this I would be very grateful.

more pictures

[ACtechGUY]

Your original heater had the power and relay OUtside the the heater . the new heater has all that built in . We willl have to eliminate the external controls and bring the wire from the thermostat directly into the heater compartment. ( i don't know what the themostst on the ceiling is all about though)

The device with the 2 black wires(in the heater) and 5 screw teminals will be where you make your connections. if you look hard at the tan colored area you will see R G and maybe C or B .

What you need to do is identify what wire comes from the thermostst inside the house and extend that wire into the heater.

As I said in a previous post you can jump out the fan INSIDE the heater itself . Look real close at the device in your #3 photo. you will see the screw terminals have letters printed on it next to the screw terminals. place a jumper wire between R and G at heater , Not at the stuff on the ceiling.

[matty1stop]

Thank you. I will give the jumper another shot with the correct wiring. Is there any way of determining what wire is coming from the thermostat?

[ACtechGUY]

It will be a 4 or 5 conductor wire coming from the general direction of wherever the thermostat is located. look for the wire that goes up thru the floor by itself.