Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2004 11:29:55 -0400
Reply-To: Jason Willenbrock <pooncerelli@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jason Willenbrock <pooncerelli@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Fridge blowing out. Where to seal air leaks
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
hi craig,
i understand your annoyance, as i have just spent the last few weeks trying
to get mine from blowing out as well. here' what i did as per the list.
first i pulled the fridge and opened the combustion chamber in the rear of
the fridge where the lines go in. i cleaned the jet orifice in alcohol
being careful not to damage the tip of it. i cleaned out the chamber which
was full of all kinds of crud. i blew out the ehaust tubes and the
condensation pipe that runs along the bottom of fridge. now those were all
pretty dirty and could have possibly been the cause of my fridge blowing
out, what with the crud blowing around and hitting the flame and all. i
then closed up the chamber, my rubber gasket was in poor shape but i used it
anyways with copious amounts of silicone sealant. i then reinstalled the
fridge. at this point it fired right back up, i took her for a drive and
now she blows out at about 40 mph. okay, i am getting tiffed! so know i
decided to combat the flue. i remove the flue and like you i use sealant
all over it hoping to get it right. took her for a drive and nada! still
blowing out! myt last resort other then feeling like a failure was to now
play with the alignment of ehausts pipes. so i looked at my exhausts while
installed, they appeared to be slightly(very slightly) angeled up, must be
from removing fridge so much and not handling the exhausts properly. so, i
disassembled the flue again, i used some muscle and tweek the exhuast pipes
slighlty down and using a wooden dowel in the hole to help facilitate this.
now the holes were perfectly aligned witht the body metal. i reinstalled
using sealant, when i got to the middle metal insert i made sure is seated
well with no play. i tightened everything down but not too much as too much
torque made the flues angle back up. everything tight i check the middle
metal piece and squeezed it together with the pie pan vent for a snug fit.
looking at the holes they are still perfectly aligned with body metal, not
angled up or down but just in the middle. i took her immediatley for a
drive on the windiest day i might add and to my surpise 70 mph and burning
like a jet engine!!! keping about 40 degrees cooler then ambient air temp i
might add!
so to recap the flue vents need to be perfectly aligned to keep wind out.
you will just have to play with different angles until you find the right
spot. i am now afraid to remove my fridge again as i may lose the spot
again. i do recommend pulling fridge and cleaning out the chamber as
preventative maintenance
good luck
hope this helps
jason
87 syncro westy with cold beer!
>From: Craig Oda <craigoda@GMAIL.COM>
>Reply-To: Craig Oda <craigoda@GMAIL.COM>
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: Fridge blowing out. Where to seal air leaks
>Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2004 21:31:06 -0700
>
>So, I've taken my fridge exhaust vent off for the 2nd time because my
>van is still blowing out over 55mph and it's getting a little bit of a
>hassle to put ice in the fridge or flip to battery when I drive. I
>want to turn on the propane and forget about it.
>
>here's a picture of my vent with all the plates and rubber off.
>
>http://oda.bz/~craigoda/vanagon/img/van-fridge-exhaust.jpg
>
>Where does the air leak in that is blowing out the flame?
>
>I'm assuming the exhaust pipe is the taller tube. I put a copious
>amount of blue silicon sealant around that and tried to seal it up. I
>also put a lot of sealant around the edge of the tear-drop oval.
>Does this oval have to be airtight? I took a file and made it
>completely smooth then put the silicon around the edge. put the black
>rubber gasket over that, base metal plate, then screwed it in. I did
>not put any sealant between the black rubber gasket and the body of
>the van. Should I?
>
>There is a roundish metal plate that fits betweeen the outer pie-pan
>cover and the exhaust pipe. There's a hole in the center of the plate
>that aligns with the exhaust pipe. it's just kind of hanging in the
>wind in the middle. Do I have to have this flat metal plate air-tight
>against the exhaust pipe? The plate was bent a bit, so I took a
>hammer and straightened it. However, even after straigthening, it
>does not appear to be completely flush with the exhaust pipe. It
>jiggles around a bit. Is this the source of my problem? I've got it
>gooped up with silicon now and am going to wait for the silicon to dry
>and try it out tomorrow.
>
>What should I try next? There's some hoses that the exhaust and
>intake pipes connect to. Do these develop air leaks?
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