Date:         Mon, 26 Jun 1995 11:09:05 CST6CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Dan Houg" <fairwind@northernnet.com>
Subject:      Fridge Tune-up.

Since the Westy-ectomy, I've had time/access to do those pesky things 
one wishes they could do... I tuned up my fridge!

Here's what I did, and thanks to Derek Drew's fridge article for some 
of these ideas:
1.  disassembled the burner assembly.  this is very easy and i found 
a few significant things.  first off, the drain tube was completely 
blocked with cement like crud.  that tube with the threaded plug in 
the front of your fridge drains the condensation from the burner 
chamber.  if you can't easily blow into that tube, your tube is 
cruded up!  secondly, i cleaned the gas jet and resisted the 
temptation to run a wire or welding torch tip cleaner thru it.  i 
just used carb cleaner and compressed air.  i cleaned the glass 
window for flame viewing and also cleaned and polished the ends of 
the lucite rod that conducts the flame light from the glass window to 
that hole in the corner of the fridge.  i blew out quite a bit of 
ash/rust from the burner tube heat exchanger.

2.  i took apart the air pump.  i cleaned it and greased the rubber 
seal with a silicone grease made for rubber.  the addition of the 
grease yielded quite a bit more of an air 'puff' when the plunger is 
operated.

3.  dusted the condensor air fins and lubricated the fan.  by the 
way, the fridge fan draws about 350 ma current as measured with a 
somewhat higher quality analog meter.  i think i will add another 
muffin fan to the rectangular grid on the left side of the fridge 
cabinet to help exhaust the heat from the back of the cabinet.  that 
cheap little fan on the condensor seemed to move quite a bit of air 
so i'll leave that be.  the lubrication quieted it down a bit.

4.  i ran a 7.0 X 1.0 mm tap into the drain tube hole to clean up the 
threads as mine was nearly impossible to thread that cap into.  lubed 
the threads with graphite and it goes in 'so nize' now.

5.  relocated my interior fridge fan wires out thru the top by the 
evaporator.  yes, i will have *3* fans on my fridge when i'm done!

6.  tightened the piezo sparker as the big nut holding it in postion 
was loose.  it 'snaps'  better now.

So that was my anal-retentive afternoon to fix something that still 
worked.

-dan