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Subject:Re: 87 westy Reeferigerator madness
From:S Sittservl
Date:Fri, 3 Sep 1999 19:41:20 EDT

>  From:    monster51@SPRINGNET1.COM (Wade Ebert)
>
>  Ok, so I've been reading posts and finally got a chance to check out my
>  reefer. It lights, no problem. It stays lit, no problem. I plugged it
>  into city current, checked the outlets, power there, but no fan noise
>  from the reefer. Checked the fuses behind the driver's seat. They looked
>  good, changed 'em anyway. Tried battery current, still no fan. Is there
>  a breaker on the back of this thing or what am I missing?
>
>  Thanks,
>  Wade

Two likely possibilities offhand:
(1) Fan is dead.  These fans die a lot.  Solution: remove fridge and
    replace fan.
(2) Fan is fine, but it hasn't gotten hot enough behind the fridge yet
    for the fan to turn on.  A thermal switch turns on the fan at something
    like 110 or 120 degrees.

Does the fridge work OK (get cold) on city current and 12V?
If it does, (1)  or (2) is likely.  Try running it on city current
or propane for a while, on a hot day, with the van closed up.
After a while, you should be able to hear the fan come on.

Alternatively, if you're feeling adventurous, you can remove
the vent grill by the rear table, reach in there, and find the
roundish thermal switch up by the top of the coils (there's
a drawing in the RM182 refrigerator manual available at
www.rv.com).  Use a bit of wire (with aligator clips on
the ends, ideally) to bridge across the terminals on the
thermal switch.  The fan should come right on.  Just don't
touch the wire to the wrong place - not much danger of
shock, but I don't know if it could damage the fridge
circuitry (what little there is).  The fridge doesn't need to
be on for this to work - the fan is controlled solely by the
thermal switch, and doesn't care what the fridge is doing.

The fan is fused through the "pump" fuse (not the "fridge"
fuse) behind the driver; there's no other breaker or anything
like that.

                                        -Steven Sittser

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