1949 GE Refrigerator Relay HELP - RO81

[swestoyz]

Hey guys -

When I got home this weekend I noticed the '49 GE beer fridge was not running. After checking things out it was apparent the original relay was toast - the load line was pretty fried up. The original PN was a WR7X6.

After a little cross referencing it looked like the Supco RO-81 could be used as a replacement. I thought - great! I ran down to Dey today and procured the little solid state relay.

After wiring it up according to the "GE Square Relay" on the packaging, I got nothing. Well, it took a few tries to figure out which unmarked wire of three was the neutral running up to the cabinet, and which wire was the call wire back to the relay from the cold control vs. the hot line for the interior bulb (ooops). I wired the two 'line' wires up to a hot and common from the house service.

Two things I'm fearing - I probably toasted the RO-81 with a few wiring mishaps. But after a few Google searches I ran across some of the Monitor Top guys talking about using the RO-81, but wiring the load side of the relay to the cold control, and NOT using the Black load line from the face of the cold control? Has anyone had any experience with trying to retrofit these in on our old fridges before?

http://monitortop.freeforums.net/thread/712/supco-relay-connection-1936-compressor

Ben

http://www.supco.com/web/supco_live/products/RO81.html

 

[swestoyz]

FIXED!

I found the Monitor Top site right after I had called it a night. This morning I quickly wired it up to what the guys on the MT site were suggesting and she started right up! Tonight I'll button up everything in time for some grilling weather later this week (finally!).

http://monitortop.freeforums.net/thread/734/supco-ro-81-inside-story

For future reference, here's the wiring diagram of how I got this to work. I suspect these can be used for a pretty large range of GE and possibly GM fridges from the late 40's through the 50's. Better off than spending $$ on NOS replacements, if they're available.

Here's a link to another thread on the MT site where the guys talk about the dummy wires and pulling them out of the relay. I'll probably just cap them off as I have space galore compared to what they're working with.

Ben

 

[rp2813]

Excellent news, Ben!

 

There was a recent post from someone inquiring about the blue lead that broke off their compressor.  This would be useful information for them.  I'll see if I can locate the thread.

 

[goatfarmer]

Great info, Ben, thanks!