There is no need to use the starter wire for the fridge relay ground
just because Westfalia sometimes did, as you say.

80-81 and some 82 didn't have a fridge relay under the driver's seat.
They have it built into the fridge itself. If your 82 has the 2 fuse
panel behind the driver's seat like later vans it should have had a
fridge relay under the seat also.

You can see the starter wire connection to the fridge relay in most
Bentley versions. Page 97.33b is the most likely page to see the fridge
12 volt heater relay, for 86+. For earlier vans it appears on different
pages depending on version of Bentley, commonly 97.32b.

Mark

Robert Keezer wrote:
> My 82 Westfalia did'nt have a fridge relay and the  battery went flat several times until I found out about the relay and installed one.
> Wired the ground to the frame. Works like it should, 14 years now.
> I never heard about the starter solenoid used as ground til now.
>
> Robert
> 1982 Westfalia
>
> --- On Tue, 6/9/09, mark drillock <mdrillock@COX.NET> wrote:
>
>> From: mark drillock <mdrillock@COX.NET>
>> Subject: Re: Help with 12v Dometic wiring
>> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>> Date: Tuesday, June 9, 2009, 7:15 PM
>> Yes, that is right. The starter
>> solenoid coil is the ground for the
>> fridge relay and if the red/black wire is pulled off the
>> starter the
>> fridge relay won't work even with the engine running, since
>> it won't
>> have a ground anymore.
>>
>> Not all years used the starter as the ground for the fridge
>> relay .....