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Date:         Tue, 4 Mar 97 23:00:44 EST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Sean Bartnik <sbart7kb@www.mwc.edu>
Subject:      fridge questions

Hey all, I've got a couple more questions about the Dometic fridge in my '81 Westy. This past weekend I did a "test-run" of the fridge to make sure it was up to the upcoming camping trip. Well, with outside temperatures in the 40s and inside temperatures probably in the high 60s to low 70s (electric heater) the fridge inside temperature was hovering between 40 and 50 degrees F. This was with the temperature control turned to max. I would hope and assume that the fridge would be able to get below those temperatures with that kind of ambient temp, especially with the thermostat control on max. When I put my hand over the grille inside the van, between the counter and the wall, I could feel the heat from the fridge. It seemed pretty warm, as you would expect. However, I think the fan that is mounted back on the coils should have come on. This fan didn't come on at all when the fridge was running.

Today I did a little detective work and discovered that when I bridge the contacts on the thermo-switch for the fan, the fan does not come on :-( . This leads me to believe that either the fan is bad or I have a bad ground somewhere. FWIW, the LED control panel is disconnected (I pulled the plug at the rear of the panel) but I looked in the wiring diagram and did not see a connection between the LED panel wiring and the fridge fan wiring. Perhaps someone else can check that for me.

Basically, here's the deal. There is a yellow wire that runs to the switch and is powered 12v all the time. I tested this wire and found it to be live. The wire connects to one contact on the switch and the other contact on the switch also has a yellow wire, which continues down to the fan motor. The thermo-switch is mounted on the fins at the rear of the fridge. Does anyone know the temperature at which this switch is activated?

Anyway, the yellow wire supplies 12v to the fan motor, and then a blue wire runs from the fan motor back out (this is ground), then plugs into a 3-point connector which is visible if you open the under-sink cabinet door. The blue wire is connected via the connector to two black wires which presumably run to ground. That's kinda where I lose it because it's unclear to me from the wiring diagram what goes on from there. The other points in this connector are two red wires, one of which goes off to power the LED panel and the other carries the 12v to the yellow wire which goes to the thermo-switch. These red wires are, of course, live. Then there's a white wire which connects to a brown wire, and I haven't determined their purposes yet.

What gets confusing is that the two black wires connected to the blue wire plunge int a wiring sheath. Coming out of the sheath are two smaller sheaths, one of which goes to the connector for the LED panel and has two black wires and one goes to the sink pump switch at the faucet with two black wires.

If anyone can check the camper wiring diagram in their Bentley or Haynes (remember, '81 Westy) and confirm or deny my analysis, I'd really appreciate it. I fear that without the fan working, the fridge is not working as efficiently as possible. I'll be carrying some perishables with me on the camping trip and I want them to stay fresh. I'm tempted to just pull the fridge and sort out this mess for myself, so how long does that typically take?

How long does it normally take or when does your fridge fan (the one mounted on the coils at th rear of the fridge) come on? Am I worrying needlessly?

Any and all help is appreciated, Sean -- ***************************************************************** 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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