85 Regal 31'

I got my water heater running after I cleaned out the wasp nest -lol. However, the wire at the bottom right side, that I think tells the electronic ignitgn that the fire is on doesn't work and the heater just goes click, click, click. (sigh). I tried adjusting it but it didn't seem to help. Suggestions, please.
I'm going to enclose a close up pic. I hope this works becuase often when people r talking about wiring I'm not sure which wire they mean.

Tigger

The green wire goes to the thermocouple, which signals the control board that the fire's lighted, and allows the gas valve to stay open.

The clicking you hear is the ignitor firing and/or the gas valve opening. You're not getting any flame, probably because no propane is getting through.

1. Make sure the HW tank is full of water.

2. Make sure the valve on the propane tank is open. As with any valve, back it off 1/8 turn from fully open (this eliminates the possibility of it getting seized in the open position).

3. Make sure the "sniffer" is turned on, and has quit beeping. A slow flash on the LED is normal.

4. Light a burner on the stove - it may take a couple of minutes to bleed all the air out of the system. Shut off the burner and try the HW heater again.

If it still doesn't light, check the resistance on the thermostat and the ECO (behind the black cardboard). Should be 0 ohms. If either is open, replace; they come as a set for about $30, and replacement is literally, a "snap".

Rusty - I'm definitely getting flame - I can see it!! But the heater still clicks. when you say the green wire r u talking about the one that is in the bottom right corner of my pic? If so what does the one do that I labeled 'is lit?'

thanks
Tigger

Yes. The white wire does also. The controller allows the flame to light for a few seconds to bring the thermocouple up to temperature, then it switches to the thermocouple. If the thermocouple doesn't stay "on" (by closing the circuit to ground through the green wire), the propane valve loses power and closes.

You can check this by temporarily grounding the white wire to the green wire connector at the thermocouple.

Anyway, your symptoms point to an issue with the thermocouple, as the ECO and thermostat show OK, or you'd not get flame ignition. The thermocouple is relatively inexpensive and easy to replace.