Accessing the Sail Switch on the Furnace in a 2014 323BHS

[Albertasaurus]

I should have better documented how I made the repairs with more photos, but silly me didn't think about it at the time. However, here are some pics of the aftermath. The first photo shows the location of the furnace from the outside. You can see the furnace exhaust just to the left of the kitchen slide-out. Notice the water heater is installed between the furnace and the front pass-through storage area where the docking station is. This makes removing the furnace via the storage area pretty much impossible. NOTE: this arrangement might be unique to the 323BHS, and you should be able to remove the furnace in a 303 using Rob's method.

The second photo shows the bottom cupboard next to the fridge, behind which is the furnace access panel. Truth be told, there isn't much on the furnace you can access through this panel. But, you can get at the shutoff switch on top of the furnace if you knew it was there and felt around for it, the furnace power plug and outlet can be accessed, and the thermostat wires are right there.

After removing the exhaust vent outside, I then removed the interior access panel. The screws in the four corners of the panel are just screwed into thin panel board, so be careful not to strip the screw holes taking them out or putting them back in. I then removed the screws securing the cupboard shelf so the shelf could "float" when the furnace is lifted.

Now I got my handsaw and made a cut on each end of the cupboard kick plate. It was then that I discovered there are pocket screws holding the kick plate to the cupboard carcass, and I could have just removed those instead of cutting out the kick plate. That was a head-smack moment for sure. There are also some screws through a cleat behind the kick plate holding the cupboard in place that need to be removed.

The propane was shut off at the tanks, and I disconnected the copper propane line from the furnace connection. The furnace power plug was disconnected, and the outlet unscrewed from the floor so it wouldn't be in the way. There are two screws securing the furnace to the floor - one on each side. The screw on the back side is a little tricky, but manageable if you feel around for it and guide the screwdriver in with your fingers.

The thermostat wires are inside a wire loom that's fastened to the floor, and that had to be freed. There's lots of slack in the thermostat wires, so I didn't bother disconnecting them from the furnace.

Once the furnace was free, I lifted it to clear the cold air return duct, then slid it to the right, away from the exterior wall. To get the furnace into the kitchen to work on, I had to tilt it by pulling the bottom forward toward the kitchen. This will cause the top of the furnace to hit the shelf but that's OK because the shelf is now free to move. Then it was just a matter of pulling the furnace into the kitchen.

After replacing the sail switch, the furnace re-installation is the reverse of the removal. I bought a new limit switch as well, but it is located between the two plenums and I didn't want to take the furnace apart any further to replace the that switch.

All this could have been avoided had an outside furnace access been installed at the factory.

Cheers!
Al


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[jakev383]

I know this is an old post, but wanted to say thanks Al. The pictures in your last post do not seem to work, but the description should be enough for me. We have a 2015 323BHS and the furnace has been short cycling for a while - sometimes it works fine, other times like today it runs for 2-3 seconds and then flame off for 10-15 seconds before igniting again - and it finally has gotten annoying enough that I've decided to fix it
I'd tried halfheartedly to get to it once before by crawling from the basement side, but that was going to be a lot of work and it was not misbehaving enough for that amount of effort yet. Knowing I can get it out/to it from the inside cabinet without completely destroying it is good to know!