I just knew there was a mouse in there!!!!!!!!!

Robert
1982 Westfalia

--- On Sat, 8/9/08, J Stewart <fonman4277@comcast.net> wrote:

> From: J Stewart <fonman4277@comcast.net>
> Subject: Gas Heater & Thanks Robert Keezer!!
> To: warmerwagen@yahoo.com
> Cc: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com
> Date: Saturday, August 9, 2008, 12:49 PM
> It may sound strange getting excited about getting a gas
> heater working in August, but I am! I have tried half
> heartedly to get this thing working for about a year, not
> really a priority, since being a former air cooled bus
> owner, I've found the heat in the Vanagon to be more
> than adequate. But since the thing is there, I wanted it to
> work. Anyway, looking through the archives, Bentley, etc. I
> had seen mention of two fuses, a 16 and 30 amp. I saw two
> separate fuses just to the right of the main fuse block and
> thought those were the ones, neither one was blown so I
> assumed that wasn't it. Today, however, with Robert
> Keezers help, I found two MORE fuses, but located under the
> steering column cover. Neither one of those was blown
> either, but the 30 amp was LOADED with corrosion. Took it
> out and tried to clean it off, but it disintegrated. Cleaned
> the fuse block connections and popped in a new fuse and it
> the heater came on-or so I thought. The fan kicked on, but
> it was just blowing co
> ol air, so I turned it off. Let it sit for a while, then
> turned it on again, same thing except this time after about
> a minute, I heard the furnace kick on, sounded kind of like
> a gas furnace in a house kicking on. Saw a puff of smoke
> come out from underneath the van and dropped down to have a
> look-and was eye to eye with a small brown mouse!!! I'm
> guessing he had been making a home in the exhaust pipe of
> the heater, and the puff of smoke was his nest burning up.
> The mouse took off, and the heater continued to run, cycling
> on and off (it is in the mid 80's today) So now I have a
> functioning gas heater. I guess I misunderstood its
> function, though. I was thought it could be used while
> camping, but according to the owners manual, that's not
> the case. I know years ago I was at a winter camp out and a
> guy was parked next to me with an air cooled Westy with the
> gas heater, and it ran all night. I know because there were
> no hook ups, and I was freezing my a** off all night while
> listening
>  to the hum of that heater. Oh well, at least its nice to
> have it working again.     Jeff