I think I fried my fridge

aopisa · Post by **aopisa** » Sun May 08, 2011 6:33 pm

I found out my refrigerator was only running on the auxiliary battery even when it appeared to be working off of AC house current. It would only get down to about 40 degrees and drain the battery in the process.

The fuse in the converter box was blown so I replaced it (20 amp right?). Plugged it in and it fired up and quickly got down to way below freezing. I kept it plugged in during the day and checked on it periodically.

When I went out after dinner the red light was still on, but the fridge was not and was back up to ambient temperature. The fuse was still intact, but it looked like one of the wires in the box had partially melted to the glass. The metal box still felt warm to the touch. It was getting dark so I did not attempt to take the gray metal box off from around the converter to have a look.

Now the fridge does not seem to work on AC or battery.

Pretty disappointed since it seemed to be working great. Just wondering what I should be looking for when I get some time to diagnose it further.

Oh, and I have very little knowledge (read almost none) of things electrical.

Thanks.

Post by **Amskeptic** » Mon May 09, 2011 6:33 am

Sorry to hear that. I do not have Westy electrical schematics, but they are out there. If you do rustle up the schematics, I can help you when I get there, (as long as it is not so cold that I just sit there and whine that all you have to do is open the sliding door and the refrigerator will be cold enough).

Basically, we need to distinguish between a consumer draw that overheated the wiring versus wiring that could not deliver normal amperage. My guess is, if the fuse was intact, we are dealing with wiring/connections, a preferable situation.
Colin

Randy in Maine · Post by **Randy in Maine** » Mon May 09, 2011 8:34 am

Not much help but this is the only thing I have found....

http://www.vintagebus.com/wiring/bus-79-westy.jpg

aopisa · Post by **aopisa** » Mon May 09, 2011 11:15 am

Thanks for the diagram. I think I have seen one somewhere else too. I will see if I can dig it up.

Well, the fridge itself is not toast. When everything heated up it blew the fuse in the fridge control panel. I forgot about that one. It still works when I run it from the aux battery. I know I need the 120v AC to really get it cold. I am hesitant to plug it back into shore power again because I am thinking that either the PO may have rewired it incorrectly or there is something wrong with the 30+ year wiring.

I may just wait until Colin gets here to see if we can trace the problem. This wasn't on my list and could be something that eats up a lot of time trying to chase down.

aopisa · Post by **aopisa** » Sun May 29, 2011 6:42 am

Colin and I (mostly Colin) tried to decipher why the fridge overheated. We took the control panel off and the wiring does not look like this photo I found on the Samba. We had printout of not really complete wiring diagrams and only ones available on the internet.

Is this photo correct? Does anyone have a picture of a correctly wired working late model fridge panel?

Thanks

Post by **Amskeptic** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 8:50 am

aopisa wrote:Does anyone have a picture of a correctly wired working late model fridge panel?
Thanks

Too dangerous for us to speculate without seeing the source and destination wiring, but it is interesting to compare yours to this.
Get thee correct wiring diagram and we can glean and execute functional result.
Colin

aopisa · Post by **aopisa** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 12:09 pm

I now have in my possession the official VW guide to troubleshooting and repairing the Westfalia camper equipment in PDF form. The wiring diagram that you and I were tracing late the other day is the correct one. I have not had a chance to tear into that project, but a cursory review of the diagram makes sense. I am a visual person so a photo would make it much easier for me. The VW guide does have a black and white photo. I think the wiring diagram and deciphering the gray scale equivalents of wiring color in the photo will set me on the right track.

Post by **Amskeptic** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 4:10 pm

aopisa wrote:I now have in my possession the official VW guide to troubleshooting and repairing the Westfalia camper equipment in PDF form. The wiring diagram that you and I were tracing late the other day is the correct one. I have not had a chance to tear into that project, but a cursory review of the diagram makes sense. I am a visual person so a photo would make it much easier for me. The VW guide does have a black and white photo. I think the wiring diagram and deciphering the gray scale equivalents of wiring color in the photo will set me on the right track.

Worse yet, we all will be expecting your pedagogical write-up masterpiece when it is correctly repaired.
Colin

aopisa · Post by **aopisa** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 4:28 pm

Well OK, but I fear it will only be yet again another pedantic recounting of fixing some unknown person's misguided wiring in my driveway. Nothing like a heroic odyssey of taking one's vehicle apart in the middle of the desert where certain death constantly hangs in the air and survival depends on fashioning parts from found objects with McGuyveresque flair.

SoTX76Westy · Post by **SoTX76Westy** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:53 pm

Where did you find the official guide to trouble shooting a westfalia camper?

aopisa · Post by **aopisa** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 6:06 pm

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/man ... manual.php

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