Date:         Sat, 31 Jul 2004 14:51:35 -0500
Reply-To:     Jeremy Speer <jspeer@POBOX.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jeremy Speer <jspeer@POBOX.COM>
Subject:      Refrigerator Fan Upgrade
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed

Folks,

You can always tell when a vanagon is running well, the owner begins
"upgrading" everything. Well, thanks to my local Vanagon guru, my van
has been running better than ever, so i've been spending money on the
luxuries. A while back i bought a Fiamma awning (decadent!), the other
day i bought the fridge fan upgrade from Go Westy dot com.

Yeah, i could have bought a muffin fan from the local computer junk
shop, but i was also buying the rubber floor mats, so i figured what's
another $20 on the order.

The fan comes with no mounting hardware nor even mounting suggestions.
You're really on your own with this one, but since GoWesty cautions
"custom mounting required" it's not unexpected.

Step One: remove refrigerator (always fun)

Step Two:  remove old fan and bracket.

Step Three: Cut old fan wires about mid way up

Step Four: realize there are three wires coming from the new fan, but
only two on existing fan

Step Five: devise a way to test a) which wires are used, b) which way
fan blows

Step Six: solder new fan's red to existing system's yellow, news fan's
black to existing blue.

Step Seven: come up with some kind of mounting scheme. If i had a
wire-fed mig welder i probably would have just spot welded the thing in
place. Failing that i reattached the old bracket sideways after
drilling new holes, i then attached two "L" brackets to the
refrigerator's back to support the fan from the bottom. Problem is
nothing lined up with the corner mounting holes on the new fan... so i
bought some aluminum silicone and gooped the fan in place. Seriously...
i gooped the L brackets, the edge where the fan contacts the back of
the fridge and the old, now sideways, bracket. The fan was gooped in
four places. It seemed to hold really well. I let it cure for four
hours. After four hours, for what it's worth, it seemed pretty solid.

Step Eight: install refrigerator (even more fun than step One)

Step Nine: open the propane (test for leaks!) light the fridge and wait.

After about twenty minutes.... whirrrrrrrrrr. Sure enough the new fan
kicked on and purred gently. After about five minutes it stopped. This
cycle went on four of five times and the cooling fins started to coat
up with frost. Assuming the goop holds the fan in place I think this
was a success.

Why did i even do this? Well, for one the old fan was getting pretty
noisy, it seemed to move very little air so if the outside temp was
high it ran constantly, and i had some time to kill on a pleasant
Saturday afternoon in Minneapolis. If anybody wants the original fan
and motor with about 12 inches of wire still attached (i read somewhere
the fan is actually worth some money), let me know.

Best,

-jspeer
'89 Westy GL "Mystery Machine"
'00 Victory Sport Cruiser <--- recently added