Hi,

I have an '87 Westy and I'm getting ready to leave
on a long trip. I've been working on the fridge
for the last 3 days trying to understand why it
won't ignite. It's been troublesome in the past
and I want to solve the problem for good. Right
now I have the fridge pulled and it's sitting
in my van. I have an extension gas line run so
I can work on it out in the open.

I opened the little combustion chamber on the
bottom of the fridge to check the spark. It's
good. I turned the gas on and ignited it with
the combustion chamber open (carefully). Works
great and I can seal it up with it burning
and it will keep burning. I can then shut it off
and restart it and it will restart as long as it's
still hot. If I let it cool off and then try to start
it with the combustion box sealed, it won't start.
This makes me think you need some type of draft
or fresh air flow to start it. I tried pumping the
air pump (a lot) but that won't do it. I haven't
done the air pump mod yet but have the part here.
Has anyone done that? Did it help with starting?

I took apart the exhaust and fresh air pipes.
They're both clear. The little pipe from the
air pump to the fresh air pipe seems to be
clear. So, my current assumption is that there
is isn't enough of a draft getting fresh air
into the chamber for ignition. If this is true
I'm not sure how to get a good draft going.
Maybe a bicycle pump on the condensation drain?  :)
In the past I used to cool the fridge down overnight
with 110VAC before trying to ignite and that might have
helped a little but it still wasn't consistent.
Any help, advice, questions are very welcome!

Thanks and sorry for the long post.

Jeff H.
'87 Westy