help me, internets

because my landlord is a moron who told me my furnace was electric and not gas, my pilot light isn't lit. see those toes in my icon? they're COLD. (temps are in the 30s-40s today. never mind that they were in the 80s last week, this is fucking Texas.)

i've figured out how it should theoretically work: i turn the gas valve until it's parallel to the line to turn on the gas, then i turn the knob to 'pilot' and push it down to make the hissy gas noise, and then i light the pilot and turn the knob to 'on'. right?

apparently not. at firsti could get the pilot to light for a few seconds, but as soon as i tried to turn the knob to 'on' it went out. now, no matter how long i hold it down, even though i can hear the gas, i can't get it lit at all.

what the fuck do i do to make it stay lit?

if it helps, the furnace is a Ruud UGAC-045CD.

my chilly kitties thank you.

pilot light follies

so. now i can't get the damn thing to light, even for a second, no matter what i do. and it's 39F outside and hailing.

somehow, i get the idea it isn't supposed to be this difficult.

on the up side, i've got the wireless up and running and my Ikea run was a smashing success. i still have to assemble the loveseat, but i even managed to get the TV onto the stand by myself. (and i only damaged the stand slightly in the process... since this is a temporary, $15 TV stand, i can't feel too bad about it, though.)

and now i will go fuss with the pilot light some more. dammit.

update: i thought, hey, maybe the tube is clogged with soot from all these attempts to light it. so i took a toothbrush to it, and was able to get a weak flame. unfortunately, no matter how long i held the knob down, it still wouldn't stay lit. so i tried taking a pin to it, and that didn't seem to make any difference. so i've at least got an idea what the problem is, i just don't seem to be able to fix it.

feh.

update 2: FIXED! after some more web searching, i decided i needed to see if i could pull out the thermocouple and take a look at it... and found it nowhere near where i expected it to be. after removing a panel held on by one very rusty screw, i found what appears to be a thoroughly kludged pilot light assembly, which lit right up for me. so the furnace is now doing its thing, and sometime soon it's possible Daddy-O may vacate his spot under the bathroom heat lamp and Iceberg will come out from under the comforter.

and now i need to go wash up and change my pajamas so i can assemble the couch. which has off-white upholstery.