Date:         Wed, 5 Mar 97 16:12:32 EST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Sean Bartnik <sbart7kb@www.mwc.edu>
Subject:      more on the fridge

Hey all,
Well, the fridge saga continues on the '81 Westy.  

Today I pulled the fridge, which was not a hard job.  Getting it back in
was MUCH harder.  

Anyway, I pulled it out and found the fan at the back that blows over
the coils when activated by the thermo-switch.  I removed the fan and
hooked it directly to the battery.  Fan fired right up!  BTW, this fan
is pretty powerful, I was impressed by how much air it moved.  It's
installed at the bottom of the rear of the fridge and blows air up over
the fins at the back of the fridge.  So I know the fan is good.

Next job was to test the thermo-switch.  It is a simple little switch
that is screwed onto one of the fins at the rear of the fridge.  It
switches the 12v and not the ground.  I tested it by heating it up with
my multimeter attached, when it got hot, I heard it click and resistance
dropped to a couple ohms (from infinity) so I presume the switch is
good.  Does anyone know the exact temperature at which the switch is
supposed to close?  I though I saw on the switch 175 K but that wouldn't
make sense would it?  Wouldn't 175 Kelvin be below freezing?  Anyway, I
know the switch is good.

The only thing I can think of is that either the fins never got hot
enough for the switch to activate or there is a bad ground somewhere.  I
know that the ground wire from the fan is blue and leaves the fridge and
goes over to a 3-point connector which is visible under the sink.  The
blue wire ceases to be and instead becomes 2 black wires and I
completely lose it from there.  The sheath/harness splits off into about
3 smaller harnesses, one going behind the cabinet rear wall so I lose
track of it, one going up to the sink faucet switch, and one going to
the LED panel.  Does anyone know for sure where exactly the fridge fan
is supposed to ground?  I haven't been able to find that out.  I'm
thinking about simply rigging my own switch in the circuit so I can turn
it on when I need it.

Thanks for all help,
Sean
--
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Sean Bartnik                           "Life is tough, 
sbart7kb@www.mwc.edu          but it's tougher if you're stupid."
'81 Vanagon Westy                      --John Wayne             

Fahrvergnugen really means "push harder."

http://www.mwc.edu/~sbart7kb/myvan.htm
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