Date:         Sun, 1 Sep 2002 14:38:07 -0500
Reply-To:     Jeremy Speer <jspeer@POBOX.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jeremy Speer <jspeer@POBOX.COM>
Subject:      Refrigerator Part Question
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Folks,

I'm wondering if some smart person out there can help me find a new piezo
sparker assembly for the standard issue vanagon refrigerator.

I managed to sever the sparker wire right where it enters the firebox. The
actual spark-maker up at the air pump is still fine... if i could buy just
the sparker end and wire that would be great... but i'll buy whatever i have
to to get it back working on propane.

How did i manage such feat?

Well, while we were on our Copper Harbor trip, my wife noticed steam coming
from behind the fridge when i'd run water from the tank.

"That's not good," i said.

Now that we're home and its a long weekend, i figured i'd pull the
refrigerator, clean it all out, and find out where the steam was coming
from.

So, getting it out was no problem. It turns out there had been substantial
body work where the exterior connections for water and electricity come
through the body of the vehicle. The body shop had completely failed to
reconnect the city water pipe that runs directly to the faucet. How
fortunate for me i never tried the connection with a hose.

The plastic pipe had fallen down diagonally and melted to the firebox of the
fridge. Whenever i ran water, some water must have trickled down the city
water connection and landed right on the firebox.

Ok, since i never planned on using the city water connection, i went to the
hardware store and bought two brass caps and closed off both ends.

I cleaned 13 years of crud from the fridge coils, repacked the fiberglass
insulation, cleaned out everything i could find that was dirty... and
proceeded to reinstall the fridge.

I don't know how i did it, but during reinstallation i TOTALLY destroyed the
piezo wire. Upon closer inspection it seems the insulation and wire had
become very brittle. It was probably close to some sort of failure anyway.

So, i've got the fridge out... i'm hoping this part exists somewhere, and
costs less than a billion dollars.

Thanks,

-jspeer
'89 Westy GL, "Mystery Machine"