help, my oil burner is not working.

[paulmars]

oil burner pump is not pulling in fuel. This is a single line system and beckett says that I should feel vacuum at pump inlet with the bleed port opened but I dont. The pump strainer is clean. Any ideas what could be wrong and how to test?

Additional info: Yesterday, I closed the oil line shutoff valve (located 20 feet away at the oil tank) to change the oil filter. After changing it, I forgot to open the shutoff valve. I turned on my heater and it stopped after a minute or so. It does that if there is excessive air in the line (from changing the filter). So, i did what I always do, I pressed the manual red reset button to reset safety switch on the Honeywell R8184G Oil Primary Control. At that point the heater fires back up and I open the bleed port on the Beckett AFG pump and a mixture of air and fuel comes out. I do that until just fuel comes out, then I tighten it and enjoy warmth coming from my vents. It is wonderful. Except this time the Honeywell red safety switch tripped again (sometimes that happens, so I just press it again and open the bleed port again as indicated above). Well this second time and a 3rd and 4th time, I never again got a solid stream of fuel, just a mixture of fuel and air. Then I remembered that I never opened the oil line shutoff valve, so I did that. After that nothing comes out the bleed port on the Beckett pump. I tried that three times, each time until the Honeywell red safety switch tripped. I thought I maybe broke something trying to use my heater with the oil line shutoff valve closed. However, just now reading the Honeywell R8184G Oil Primary Control instructions, it instructs "safety check feature simulate flame failure" to close the oil line shutoff valve and make sure the unit shuts down, then to press the red reset safety switch on the Honeywell R8184G Oil Primary Control. Which I did, but I still get no fuel to the beckett (as listed above).

I have used the heater a few times in the past 2 weeks before I changed the filter (as listed above), and it worked fine. I also checked the new filter install and everything looks good and made sure I got flow thru the filter and checked the entire line oil tank to Beckett is unobstructed.

I just removed the inlet oil supply line where it attaches to the Beckett pump (suntek) and fired her up. I feel no vacuum at the pump inlet. So, I asked beckett and see 1st paragraph above.

Any ideas as to what might be wrong and how to test?

tks,
paul

 

[brewchief]

Do you have oil at the pump inlet? It's possible that the valve isn't really opening.

There is a plastic pump coupler between the motor and the pump, it could have failed and the motor would spin but not the pump itself.

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[shelteredV]

Beckett pumps have an internal seal that will fail and keep the pump from making pressure if you run the pump with the tank valve closed. Pull the nozzle line off, turn it into a pan and turn the burner on, check for pressured flow.

 

[dodge610]

2 line system or single line system.

 

[dodge610]

Single line systems have too be bled after a filter change should be a bleeder on the pump.

 

[dodge610]

After reading your post again you still have air in the feed line. You may have too bleed the system a few more times too get rid of air.

 

[paulmars]

Do you have oil at the pump inlet? It's possible that the valve isn't really opening.

There is a plastic pump coupler between the motor and the pump, it could have failed and the motor would spin but not the pump itself.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

oil comes out valve when its open with line removed.

coupler might be the issue.

tks

 

[chrispyny]

Oil may come out but air is probably mixed with it. Use the bleed ****** and run a solid quart of oil out of it and try restarting.

 

[yeldogt]

You are going to have to bleed the line -- any air can cause a problem. Some are more touchy than others.

have installed tigerloops to solve this type of problem

 

[paulmars]

suntek

 

[paulmars]

interesting my proof showed above saying suntek pump, but somehow pump got lost after i clicked submit.

 

[paulmars]

Oil may come out but air is probably mixed with it. Use the bleed ****** and run a solid quart of oil out of it and try restarting.

air is not mixed with oil in tank.

 

[greenskeeper]

Keep bleeding the air from the oil line....could take a while

 

[paulmars]

how with no vacuum at pump inlet?

 

[WVBrady]

"Beckett pumps have an internal seal that will fail and keep the pump from making pressure if you run the pump with the tank valve closed. Pull the nozzle line off, turn it into a pan and turn the burner on, check for pressured flow."

Did you do this?

 

[paulmars]

Don't understand how to ck for flow with line off, when I have no flow with line on.

My Beckett has a suntec pump.

⁣

 

[JamesW84]

It's been a while since I've worked on one. Do you know that if you hold the button down for like 30 seconds, the controller will kick the pump on for a 2-minute purge? That's how mine was.

Mine had a little brass hose from the pump to the pipe that goes inside to the nozzle. If you undid that hose on the pipe side (leave connected to pump), and hold that red button down to prime the pump (may have to do it a few times), the pump should create vacuum and pull fuel.

If it doesn't pull fuel then

a) pump may be bad
b) fitting may be loose
c) filter not tight
d) out of fuel
e) leak in line from the tank to the pump

I had a small leak in my line, which I got mostly sealed, but it still let air in under vacuum. I installed a tigerloop as mentioned above and it solved my problem. A pump was only like $100 or so when I had to buy one.

 

[willhollin]

Do you have pump pressure at the pressure port?

 

[Super Mech]

First make sure that your oil shut off valve is truly open and that you go to have an vacuum leaks between the tank and pump. Next, make sure that the coupled between the motor and pump did not strip out and stop the pump from turning. If all of that is good, make sure the strainer under the pump cover is not clogged with slime and algae. If I remember correctly the cover had about 4-5 small bolts holding it on and the plastic strainer was under that. I’ve seen many of them clogged up. Be careful with the cover gasket. I’ve used silicone on them in the middle of 20 degree night to get them going.
Oil burners are pretty easy to figure out. They are nothing more than a pistonless engine.

 

[Dagny]

When ever you work on an oil burner the first thing you do is change the nozzle. If it is plugged there can be no suction.

 

[justinthurn]

You may have to put some oil into the pump itself. They are finicky when they run dry. Unhook the line going to the burner and drain it into a bucket or something to determine if the problem is in the pumping side or the burner side.

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[WVBrady]

oil burner pump is not pulling in fuel.
paul

I was wondering if there were any new developments. My oil pump went bad after 40 years and caused the motor to fail. I also forgot to turn the oil back on after I replaced the pump last year and am wondering if that caused the new pump to be damaged. The furnace ran OK, but it had a noise like when a bearing is bad in a motor.

When I turned the furnace on this past fall, the motor overload tripped out. By raising up the ignition transformer, I could reach the fan rotor and could tell that it was jammed. I took the motor out and the rotor spun freely on the motor shaft. I put the connecting shaft on the pump and by turning it with my fingers I found that it was bound up, but by working it back and forth I was able to get it to turn freely. Afterwards, the furnace worked OK again, but still with the noise like a bad bearing.

I am going to order another pump to keep as a spare, in case it fails again. Otherwise, I will replace it summer.

 

[lemalon]

Sorry, I'm waking up. I also have a product of the Suntec brand. I am having similar issue. I think there is an electrical problem. How can I overcome the problem?