I have a 2006 Fleetwood Niagara pop up. I can get the pilot light for the water heater lit but it won't ignite the burner to heat the water. Is there a way to clean the burner or replace it?
I noticed that this is your first post and you're new at this I'm going to suggest you get a hold of the instruction manual for your water heater. Aside from that, the lighting instructions should be posted on the inside of the heater compartment on the hot exhaust gas baffle. If I am guessing properly, it is probably Suburban brand water heater, because I think the Suburban heater was the only heater Fleetwood supplied. Lighting the pilot of course is not enough. The black control button needs to be held down to light the pilot, and since you're mentioned you've been successful in lighting the pilot, I have to assume you know about the button that you need to hold down. Since you know about the button I have to also assume that you know to rotate the button counter clockwise after a minute or so of holding down the button to activate the main burner.
Sometimes if the unit has not been used for a long time, there is a chance that the large fuel/air mix pipe may have cobwebs or other insect debris inside. The mix pipe is typically brass in color, sometime aluminum in color and is has a pair of squire aspiration hole in it near the fuel delivery orifice. I have provided a link to both a brief water heater maintenance video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlauAxIV4Kc, as well as a video showing how to light a water heater. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niu-81WTUjQ
The pilot light flame is supposed to make contact with the main burner safety thermocouple. This thermocouple is a small copper tube that runs back to the fuel regulator. Insure that the thermocouple copper tube is not broken. If it is, that would be the reason the fuel regulator is not letting gas to the main burner, because it senses that there is not pilot flame. No pilot flame and no gas delivery.
If you go through the maintenance video and it still won't work, it's probably a good time to take it to an authorized service center. It's really not worth the risk of all the bad things that can happen if it goes wrong.
One of the easiest things to do to keep insect debris out of your water heater is to toss in a flea collar and let it rest on the bottom of the water heater cabinet.
