For the last 10 weeks I've been sorting out all the issues on this 77 Palm Beach, getting her ready to roll. This coach had a lot of quality upgrades
around 12 years ago, but after that it changed hands and the remaining finishing out was done by someone who was inept in so many areas ...we call him
the staple guy, because his favourite tool was evident all over the place ...loose formica? Hit the loose corner with 30 staples.
Anyway, most of the errors were reversible, the biggest one being the vinyl wrap covering up the window drains. No need to say more, rainwater had
nowhere to go but INTO the coach. Luckily it spend the last 10 years in a heated garage out of the elements or today there'd be nothing left of her.
One thing that was really puzzling is that it was fitted with a brand spanking new fridge, which, from the look of it, had never been fired up. When I
first looked at it about a month and a half ago, I found a blown 20 amp fuse on the control board. The board had 25 amp printed on that slot, so I
replaced the blown fuse with a 25 amp. When I connected the red and black respectively to the pos and neg tangs on the board there was a puff of smoke
and a component on the back of the board burnt up, taking a bit of the trace with it. Cleaning the board I could see it was this one micro diode that
had fried. I gave the board to a friend who then ordered a bunch of replacement diodes. AFAIK he had to buy 1000 of them.
After he further cleaned up and jumpered what was left of the trace he was able to fit the diode and we reinstalled the repaired control board. Before
we hooked it up again he suggested seeing if we had 12v coming in so we undid the fridge pigtail and tested the power line in. We had 12v alright,
problem was the meter read -12v!
The pigtail plug had a notch so could only be connected one way and the red and black at the board end were hooked up according to the manual ....BUT
the feed from the breaker panel was installed backwards at the pigtail connector. So this fridge NEVER ran from day 1.
Temporarily, we switched the red and black at the board and opened up the propane. Fridge came alive just like sleeping beauty!
Larry
--
Larry - Victoria BC -
1977 Palm Beach 40,000 miles, PO said everything working but forgot the word NOT. New Atwood fridge, water heater & furnace. New SS exhaust system,
6000w Onan, Iota Converter, R134A A/C, New fuel lines & heat exchange hoses
around 12 years ago, but after that it changed hands and the remaining finishing out was done by someone who was inept in so many areas ...we call him
the staple guy, because his favourite tool was evident all over the place ...loose formica? Hit the loose corner with 30 staples.
Anyway, most of the errors were reversible, the biggest one being the vinyl wrap covering up the window drains. No need to say more, rainwater had
nowhere to go but INTO the coach. Luckily it spend the last 10 years in a heated garage out of the elements or today there'd be nothing left of her.
One thing that was really puzzling is that it was fitted with a brand spanking new fridge, which, from the look of it, had never been fired up. When I
first looked at it about a month and a half ago, I found a blown 20 amp fuse on the control board. The board had 25 amp printed on that slot, so I
replaced the blown fuse with a 25 amp. When I connected the red and black respectively to the pos and neg tangs on the board there was a puff of smoke
and a component on the back of the board burnt up, taking a bit of the trace with it. Cleaning the board I could see it was this one micro diode that
had fried. I gave the board to a friend who then ordered a bunch of replacement diodes. AFAIK he had to buy 1000 of them.
After he further cleaned up and jumpered what was left of the trace he was able to fit the diode and we reinstalled the repaired control board. Before
we hooked it up again he suggested seeing if we had 12v coming in so we undid the fridge pigtail and tested the power line in. We had 12v alright,
problem was the meter read -12v!
The pigtail plug had a notch so could only be connected one way and the red and black at the board end were hooked up according to the manual ....BUT
the feed from the breaker panel was installed backwards at the pigtail connector. So this fridge NEVER ran from day 1.
Temporarily, we switched the red and black at the board and opened up the propane. Fridge came alive just like sleeping beauty!
Larry
--
Larry - Victoria BC -
1977 Palm Beach 40,000 miles, PO said everything working but forgot the word NOT. New Atwood fridge, water heater & furnace. New SS exhaust system,
6000w Onan, Iota Converter, R134A A/C, New fuel lines & heat exchange hoses
