Okay, I think I have this straight.  I should connect a tube to the drain
tube at the bottom of the fridge and pump air out of it?  I have only had my
Westy for a few months and have yet to get that blasted fridge lit.

Also, where can I get a 'flue vent cover'?  Was this an item that VW
produced?

Matt
New Cumberland, PA
'81 Westy (current)
'74 914 (current)
'95 Nissan Altima (daily)
'72 Fastback
'83 Rabbit
'81 Rabbit

----- Original Message -----
From: "Derek Drew" <derekdrew@RCN.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2001 12:44 PM
Subject: How To Get Fridge Lit (& Delorme Mapping Software)

> At 05:05 PM 6/18/01 -0400, you wrote:
>
> >Derek,
> >I know you are an expert on the dometic 182B and so here is a question
for
> >you:
> >I operate the air plunger a few times, hold down the gas button and spark
> >the piezo and i see a poof of flame that just goes out.  Then i am unable
> >to get any flame until i use the air plunger a few times again and then
the
> >same thing happens: big burst of flame then nothing, it won't stay lit.
> >This winter i had it washed one or two times at a carwash and did'nt
cover
> >the flue.  THink that has something to do with it?  I need the thing to
> >work asap and i dont have a
> >good place or time to take the fridge out.
>
> My guess is that a huge percentage of vans have the exact problem that you
> describe. It might be made worse by going through a carwash without the
> flue cover on, or it may not. The real issue is that you have to find a
way
> to supply a vigorous amount of oxygen to the area of the flame, and you
> have to keep that area supplied with oxygen for about 100 seconds or so
> until the flame itself can build up enough mass of hot air for the hot air
> to begin rushing up and out, thereby drawing in new, fresh air from the
> other pipe.
>
> The most reliable method I know of to supply sufficient oxygen for the
full
> 100 seconds is to put a pump of some kind of the refrigerator drain tube,
> which is located at the bottom left side of the fridge. The pump can
either
> push or pull the air out. I had the impression that pulling air out worked
> slightly better once, but I don't have any validation for this. The
> simplest pump is your mouth, attached to a tube stuck on the drain pipe.
In
> this case, I am fairly certain that pulling air into your mouth and then
> pushing it into the air is the best method, but it tends to lodge your
> mouth full of metal flakes, unburned propane, and other combustion
> byproducts and so I have grown to hate this method. It is, however, nearly
> 100% reliable. More recently I have been experimenting with 12 volt air
> pumps such as are sold at supply stores such as REI for inflating rafts
and
> these can also draw the air out sufficiently quickly to keep the flame lit
> for that all important 100 seconds. What is interesting about the 12 volt
> air pump method is that you can sort of jazz the operating button on these
> pumps and each time you do you can see the green indicator light on the
> fridge glow brighter as the flame leaps up to its proper strength level
but
> if you leave off the pump too long then the green light on the fridge will
> flicker, fade, and dye. In other words, with a 12 volt air pump you can
see
> exactly how the flame responds to increased air flow, and this is a
> dramatic demonstration that most starting problems on the fridge are
simply
> air supply problems. The pump on the fridge itself is a good idea, but it
> simply does not supply sufficient oxygen. The best solution would be to
> replace that little manually operated pump with a tiny 12 volt pump, which
> would pretty much solve all of our problems.
>
> >Also did you ever get that DeLorme 3.0 mapping software.  I'd still be
> >interested.
>
> The DeLorme 3.0 topo mapping software for the group purchase has been
> acquired and it is now (as of last Friday) ready to go out.
>
> Materials and other costs were more than I expected, and so the cost to go
> in on a group purchase is $18, which you can send by www.paypal.com to
> derekdrew@rcn.com or by snail mail to Derek Drew, 5467 31st Street NW,
> Washington DC 20015.
>
> Copyright issues apply to this software, so the group purchase applies to
a
> single set of original factory disks which we will have to share amongst
> ourselves. Plus, you should uninstall the software from your computer
> before forwarding it on to the next list member. The group purchase will
> also include any backup disks that may be allowed by the software license
> but I doubt the license is very liberal in this regard.
>
> >Thanks,
> >
> >Andrew Fox
> >86 Westy
>
> ________________________________________________________
> Derek Drew                              New York, NY & Washington, DC
> derekdrew@rcn.com                     212-580-6486
> Email me for viscous couplings
> '90 Syncro Westfalia...
> ...seen off-road at
> http://users.rcn.com/derekdrew/Syncro_Madness_Area.htm
> Note: most valuable Vanagon sites on the planet (for owners) are:
>        http://gerry.vanagon.com/cgi-bin/wa.exe?S1=vanagon
>        ftp://gerry.vanagon.com/pub/
>        http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Syncro
>        http://www.vanagon.com
>        http://www.syncro.org
> My refrigerator article:
>
http://www.vanagon.com/info/articles/Refrigerator/Reefer_Madness.htm
> My article that shows how to deal with insurance companies:
>         ftp://gerry.vanagon.com/pub/auto-insurance-madness.html
> To view Wolfgang's incredibly informative wheel article
>         http://users.rcn.com/derekdrew/fitbigtiresonvanagon.htm
> To view Tim Smith's incredibly useful gearing calculator
>         http://users.rcn.com/derekdrew/syncrotireandgearratios.xls
> To view some 16" Trailing Arms that enable much larger tires see
>
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/syncro-org/files/Wheels%2C%20Tires%20%26%20Gea
ring/Wheel%20%26%20Tire%20Photos/16_Inch_Trailing_Arm.jpg
>

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