Gas fired heater owners

Bought mine as NOS a few years ago. I drove my truck to work this morning and again I'm getting occasional burnt wax type smells. No visible smoke but it's like dropping a drop of wax on a super hot skillet.
I'm thinking a solenoid is leaking by. I have also had a couple miss fires where the heater would not fire off. After letting the gas smell go away it will usually fire on the next attempt or so. Do any of you gas fired heater owners experience this? Anybody have any comments? Does the ignitor shellac up requiring cleaning?

Bought one NOS and used it this winter - my experience is the same as you describe with the exception of the burnt smell. I had a burnt smell when it was first started but went away with use. I have had mine go out for no apparant reason on 3 of 4 ocasions but it always restarted. It is good for cold weather but it is a little impractical when it is just a little cool out - overall, i like mine.

Could it be cosmolene melting off?

I wouldn't think so Bump... After 3+ years of use. I would think all that would be gone by now (if there was any). First time it fired it was clean and HOT. Only got the smell a couple times at first. Now it's more frequent. Like three times in 20 miles this morn.

Oh. Just had to throw that out there, you undeerstand...

Absooooolutely!!

check to see if any wires are touching or too close to the hot parts. could be the insulation begining to melt. some of that old plastic smells weird when it melts or burns. mine never makes a smell, but it smokes like hell out of the exhaust(under the truck) when i put it on high.

I had a gas heater in mine back in the late 80s. It was tempermental. Would fire and run no problem then flame out and would take a min or two to restart. Or it wouldn't start at all....then just as I had given up hope of having heat it would fire up. I too had the ocational burnt smell. I never did track down what it was...I figured if I started smelling it all the time I would worry about it then.

Im afraid to fire mine up. looks as though it hasnt run since new. does anyone know of someone that rebuilds them?

Well Southwind which I believe is (was) a division of Stewart Warner is no longer. I have a manual at home. I'll try to check tonight and see if was them and maybe a call could reveal a rebuilder. If it has never run Dave, I'd hook it up and fire away. Just keep the fire extinguisher handy. :mrgreen:

I know Hunter Mfg here in cleveland made heaters both hotwater and gas fired for the military. Maybe look them up and see if they can service or tell you who could. Just a thought.....

mine looks real scary, as in a fuse for a 28 gallon gas tank! :lol:
I may get the fire dept. and the bomb squad to take it of my truck and fire it up. I would classify it as unsafe. Im not hooking the fuel lines up to it now as I just made the fuse bigger tonight by changing to 3/8" fuel line.

are the gas heaters able to be submerged under water or is this a bad deal? Im kinda wondering.
anyone know what the artic heater is?

Interesting point Dave... I after installing it would think it can not be submerged. Cold air intake through the cowl at the base of the windsheild. Hot air exit either throught the floor vent or the defroster. I would imagine it would fill up pretty fast making it useless. The gas fired is the artic heater. The milder climate heater is the hot water heater. If it keeps raining here, I'll put the question to the test.

lol! I have a 725 with the heater behind the drivers side in the back. I kinda cheated today as I turned mine on to start and a fan came on, sounded like the fuel pump came on and it tryed to run. The fuel line is disconnected so it got no fuel to it to actually fire it up. on the tag on it, it said it was rebuilt in 77.that was a long time ago but maybe there is hope for it so i may try to hook up the fuel line later on and hope for the best.

Hi all, The artic heater in my rig has had that smell also but only when I first got it installed. I smell I get now is from the heat as it is a very hot, dry heat, not what you normally get in todays autos. Dont know if this is the what you are smelling or if you are smelling fuel. I also had intermitent problems with firing up and it turning off. So I took off the cage and retightened all of the wires, some of them had come pretty lose bouncing on the roads here in Alaska. That seemed to fix that problem. If anyone finds a Service place let me know as mine doesnt want to have the fan run after shut off to purge itself. That makes it pretty smokey if the windows are stil up, LOL.
Jason