Thanks for the suggestion, but I have already thoroughly cleaned out both
pipes and the combustion box.

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike S [mailto:mikes@flatsurface.com]
Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2007 10:34 AM
To: Paul Chubbuck
Cc: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Dometic mystery ....more clues!

At 09:13 PM 8/17/2007, Paul Chubbuck wrote...
>The problem has been that it is often very hard to light and also
>sometimes
>spontaneously goes out, even after hours or days of running
>successfully and
>when all is stable and the van is not moving.  Actually, it lights
>easily,
>but only stays lit a few seconds.  Then I must pump a whole lot and
>can
>light it again, only to have it go out again in a few seconds.

I had a similar problem, had to keep pumping every few seconds for 5 or
10 minutes before the flame would stay lit. It turned out to be a
partially blocked chimney (mud wasps, I think).

If you want, you can unscrew the large brass ring at the top of the
chimney, then pull the corrugated pipe out of the chimney (don't loose
the two 1/2 washers). Take the cover off the combustion chamber, and
you can then shine a flashlight through to see if it's blocked. I used
a straightened coat hanger to knock out any debris. I also used a shop
vac to suck through the intake to make sure that didn't have any junk
in it.

After doing that, a couple of pumps, light it, wait for the meter to
show the flame is good, and I'm done. Works great.