Now the refer

[jk_and_dog]

If you go back through my treads you will notice that I've had problems after problems every since I purchased this MH. I've been able to live with most and or fix the minor ones and continue my happy trip. I don't think I've ever had a complet journey with asomething going haywire until recently. I realize that with road vibrations things come loose and a few minor probles will exist. I did not go into this blind folded as I spent three years monitoring the forums and realized that problems do come up occasionally. I've come to accept that "this" coach is a problem child and I'll just have to live or cope with it. I use the MH as a traveling office and hotel and do not have to 'live" or reside in it for more than a week at a time. Mostly just 2 to 3 days at a time.

I have over 44K mile with over a thousand hours on the genny and have taken pretty good care of the unit, ie oil changes, lubes, engine care etc at the local Carter CAT or Freight Liner or Onan repair shops.

Now here is the good part.... I actually took two, two night trips where I did not have an issue with the coach!

I was hoping for a third trip but wow to me it did not happen. If you look on the "other" forum you will see a post on the water pump issue. I decided to post this problem on this forum since i have a winnie with a Nor-cold refer. Maybe you guys have run across the same issue so I'm asking for some advice here.

While on my lastest adventure down to GA I noticed things starting to defrost in the freezer of the the 4 door Nor-cold refer. It was in auto mode and since I don't generally run the genny it was on auto and running on propane during the trip. On my first stop overnight I ran the genny and the refere did its thing and switched to AC. By morning things had really started to unfreeze in the freezer. Also it decided not to make ice anymore and i attribute this to the loss of frezing air in the freezer.

I removed everthing from the refer that would spoil and decided that a good defrosting would be in order. I defrosted the unit and placed it back on AC since the unit seems to work better in this mode. Thirty six (36) hours later it made its first 4 ice cudes. Seems a tad long to me. Also the "other" side of the freezer still had not gotten down to 'freezing" and the little bit of ham I had place in there was still pretty soft but starting to stiffen as in freezing. Still I beleive its a tad too long for this to freeze as when I first got the unit it would take less than 8 hours to start making ice.

1. is there a "filter" that may be clogged with dirt in the system and if so where?
2. Any other ideas as to what may be happening to the unit??

Any and all suggestions appreciated.
thanks
dog

[tderonne]

I've had good luck keeping a few Norcolds going by cleaning them. The Chimneys fill with rust, the burners rust, the gas orifice gets clogged, that sort of cleaning. I can't recall exactly who, but someone recommended that my mom just replace the burner assembly. The orifice is part of it. Replacing it guarantees you'll have a clean setup, and is a little less work than cleaning it since you need to take it off to clean it.

If that's have really gone bad, I've found rvmobile.com to be a great source of information (tough to navigate, but LOTS of info).

[Jim Stewart]

I am in the process of working through problems of my own. It can be many things.

Pull the outside wall vent and look for any yellow powder deposits, then it's the cooling unit.

Coming out from the light (most likely location is a set of white wires going to a little black bullet looking object that is clipped to the fins in the upper back inside wall of the refer, that is the thermistor. One of the test you can do for the cooling unit is to pull that clip holding the thermistor off and let it hang down. Turn to refer to the coldest setting (9) and let it run over night. If it the refer now cools properly, it will tell you that the cooling unit is working fine.

There is also a test in the Service Manual for checking the Thermistor. If that is bad, it needs replacement. Depending on the model you have the manual tells you how to push the buttons to check the fin temperature and what is normal.

Again, depending on the model, you may have warning codes. If you have such a model and you have no warning codes, more than likely the propane, AC and 12 Volt DC are fine.

Here is a link to manuals.

Service Documents

The manual gives you a step by step troubleshooting guide in the format of if it does this, yes, no, and then what to do next and so on and so on. They are very helpful.