Winnebago Warrior furnace pooped out

[brianokeefe]

Hi All.
A little background- I bought a one owner 1990 Winnie Warrior on a Toyota chassis. It's a 1 owner but the owner that survived the other was a woman who parked it for 3 years. That in itself created some issues like tires that looked good but really weren't, etc. but I was OK with that as the price and condition were good. I've since replaced all the tires, major tune-up, ball joints and more. Again, it's money but well spent IMHO.
A couple of other items took some figuring out but I did. I replaced the fridge burner so it would run on propane and all I paid for that was a tremendous amount of swearing and a few parts. Same with the furnace which was caked with mud dauber nests and the squirrel cage was real tight. I took the furnace out, cutting the power supply wires to be re-spliced later. Again, only frustration and swearing were the cost and when I re-inserted the furnace it ran perfectly until....
I was in a very cold environment recently and the furnace would make a real hi-pitched squeal before settling down in a minute of 2 and then running normally. Someone complained about the squealing in the middle of the nite so I thought to remove the furnace again and ck. it. The squirrel cage had been lightly contacting the sheet metal housing, causing the squeal so I repositioned it and oiled the motor shaft, rebuilt it and spliced the power back, reinserted it into its hole and....nothing.
If you don't know this make, Atwood, and the RV you wouldn't know that there is absolutely no access to the furnace w/o disconnecting the gas, cutting the power wires and jimmying it out of its hole. There are no panels, no access from behind the bench seat, nothing.
I'm wondering if I forced some power supply wire in the hole, into which I cannot see well at all with the furnace out (much less get my hands in there!), to separate, break, disconnect. I have power from the coach battery but nothing to the thermostat or the power wires to the furnace (which I can ck. w/a multi-meter where I cut them). The fuse looks fine and the circuit breaker isn't tripped. No power to the fuse though at the control center. All other electrical gadgets work fine from lights to anything using shore power.
Any ideas? I'm planning to pull the furnace out again and see what I can as far as power supply but short of that I'm at a loss.

Many thanks for any help and happy camping!

[crasster]

midnightsadie wrote:
start at the breaker work towards the furnace follow the power. but first pull that fuse and clean some times they get oxidized.

X2, I'd start there but ALSO if you are positive that the squealing was from the rubbing metal that is good, but the squeal may have also be bearings locking up.

The four tools that would come in handy for this job would be a long stick oiler, flashlight, stick mirror, and a multimeter.

You may be able to put a drip of oil on the bearings and un-stick them if that is the problem.

[brianokeefe]

some progress. I removed the unit and tried direct 12V input to the motor and it runs. I followed both red and black wires. Black goes somewhere besides the relay (I'll ck the diagram) and applying voltage to it all the way to the splice while connecting the red to power no farther than one side of the relay, the motor ran. On the other side of the relay the red is dead. From the relay the red goes to the breaker and I jumped that and nothing. So it seems the relay is bad, yes? I'd really appreciate some feedback before I buy and install a new one thought that's not much of an issue (I hope).

Many thanks again to all! Knowledge in numbers and knowledge is power!

[brianokeefe]

I jumped the thermostat wires previously to no effect so the problem is further upstream, as it were.
Thanks!

[turbojimmy]

brianokeefe wrote:
Thanks for this and all the other responses-very helpful and this is a great idea once I remove the unit. Will the motor run without the whole gas hook-up, etc.?

Yes, you can bench test it with 12V. The thermostat just completes a circuit so you can just jump those wires. It will function as it should, except it obviously won't get hot with no gas hooked up. The blower will give up after a while once the control board realizes it didn't fire.

[brianokeefe]

Thanks for this and all the other responses-very helpful and this is a great idea once I remove the unit. Will the motor run without the whole gas hook-up, etc.?

[turbojimmy]

The rear furnace in my Allegro starts up with a high pitched squeal only when it's very cold in the rig (below freezing). Once spinning for 3-5 seconds it will stop and won't do it again so long as interior temps are maintained. Fortunately for me, it's under a bed and I can literally just lift the whole thing out from above. My front furnace is another story - but it's apparently been removed before since someone "clearanced" the cabinet frame so it will slide out. If you do have to remove yours, you may get away with some careful trimming of the area to remove it.

On the no-worky thing - it worked before you messed with it so I'd venture to guess that you've either got a wrong or bad connection. I'd disconnect it and 1) verify that you've got voltage from the control board and if so 2) apply 12V directly to the motor to see if it works.

[KAttkisson]

I had a 1993 full size warrior based on the Chevy P-30 chassis I to had the atwood furnace and many dirt dappers etc. I don't remember specifics enough to be of immediate help but I do know that I cut the wires only once and then installed bullet connectors. In my installation you could get a crow foot wrench on an extension and take off the gas line . I agree with other responders that you probably have a wiring problem--either connected wrong the last time around or you have pulled a connector apart in that harness uptream. Let us know what you find.

[j-d]

Sometimes you can lube the motor bearings with a Zoom Spout Oiler. This one's only $2-something on Amazon Prime



Premium oil meant for small motors and appliances.

[ronfisherman]

Since the furnace worked before except for squeal. I would suspect that something did not get installed as it was before removal. I would start as already stated with the cut power wires.
I repaired a Atwood furnace for a friend last year. Ended up purchasing a new motor to stop squealing. Got the motor off Amazon.

[midnightsadie]

start at the breaker work towards the furnace follow the power. but first pull that fuse and clean some times they get oxidized.