Furnace Question

[mauied1101]

Hey Boys and Girls,

Question for you on furnace heaters - I have a York furnace (combo heater/ac unit) P2MP model that I'm guessing is 12 years old. In the past week, it's been making a hell of a squeaking noise when the furnace turns on.

I did a little searching online and at some boards and it looks like the belt may be loose or the pulley needs to be tightened (or both). Opened the furnace up and I see the control unit in front of me with the roller unit (pretty inaccessible) behind it.

Questions are:
1) is this something that I can do myself
2) how do I know what to say to an HVAC guy so i don't sound like an idiot or get swindled
3) if you live in the DC area and have a recommendation on who I should call
4) how much is it going to run to do the belt/pulley job and what are my risks of needing a new unit?
5) how fast do I need this job done?

Any responses would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Mauied

[CoventryCat86]

1. I doubt it, but that totally depends on how handy you are.
2. Just say "it's been making a hell of a squeaking noise when the furnace turns on" and let him figue it out.
3. Sorry, I live in Nova Scotia so I can't help you here.
4. Hard to say, it depends of what those shitheads charge for walking in the door. Changing the belt is easy for them but hard for someone who isn't too "handy" so it should take him about a half an hour. However, if you have a bearing problem, that's a whole 'nother story. I highly doubt you have a "pulley" problem. I also highly doubt you need a whole new unit.
5. While it's probably not an emergency, you should get it done ASAP.

I had a similar problem with my furnace. The blower had some real shitty design for a bearing with disintegrated and the shaft came out of it and wore a slot into the blower housing while it made a hell of a sqeaking noise. It completely ruined the shaft.

So, I contact some HVAC parts place and they tell me it will take a month to get a shaft and six weeks to get the factory bearings (which were no fucking good in the first place). So my brother found some shaft stock from someplace (my brother works for a steel company and knows shit like this ) and made our own damn shaft and we did some research on what better design of bearing would work in this particular housing. We had the thing fixed in one day.

Now even your most trained furnace "professional" wouldn't have the first clue to do know what to do in my case instead, he'd have you waiting two months for parts...

[mauied1101]

Thanks CC

Turns out that my inducer fan motor kit is running out of time. And the tech also told me that my flame sensor needs cleaning and that i need to replace my hot surface ignitor within the next year.

So rather than spend the money on a new inducer fan motor kit, i'm getting a new two-stage furnace for an arm and a thigh.