Dancing with Frigidaire - or My first MCM Adventure with a FPI-16B-64

[ovrphil]

Last Saturday I took the plunge and bought my first, major mcm appliance. After today's "trial run", I thought of just mentioning that I got it and I'm working on the next phase. So here's the fridge that I happily bought, knowing the chances of it working were less likely than likely. Afterall, $24? Interestingly, when plugged in for a few minutes, the compressor started, running quietly and smooth.
When I brought it in the garage, waited about 20-24 hours before plugging it in(I didn't move it on its side, but upright), the unit started up but with a new, never before heard random click noise accompanying the quietly-running compressor. That soon ended after 20 minutes, with the plate above the compressor in the freezer section becoming quite hot. It now doesn't work at all, but it's still beautiful. Where I go from here is an unfolded chapter. I have no skills in repairing a fridge...meanwhile, here's a few photos for those who might be interested or who asked about me and my escapades. And , oh, I have read some of the Frigidaire stories that Carmine, PhilR and Unimatic posted about their Frigidaires. If only my problem was a defrost issue. Maybe it's just a starter relay. More investigation will be on tap. These are photos before cleaning. One side at the top was cleaned a little, but overall, it was just mostly dusty with some areas of goop or other. The interior smelled amazingly fresh! Beside not working now, it's missing the upper right shelf, butter dish, and the ice trays.

 

[Ultramatic]

 

It's in BEAUTIFUL condition, running or not. I am sure the A.W. family will come a running to help you put this gorgeous refrigerator back into service. What a STEAL at $24!!!

 

[ovrphil]

More photos - sorry about a duplicate in the above photo set

I'm still trying to get better photos of some of the areas of the fridge. These are compressor and other under-carriage views, and other self-explanatory photos.

One of my concerns is Compressor View 1 - there appears to be some rust in the back top there, a hole, maybe - unless that is by design? lol.

The door gaskets are in great condition, as is most of the case and interior/parts.

One of two interior upper fridge area lights work; the freezer light works.

The foot pedal is strong, but I'm not sure if it's perfectly working or not - it seems to be!

 

[ovrphil]

Talking in the Dark

I wonder if anyone out there hears their appliances "talk" to them. Not to sound nuts(I can do that easily), but the Japanese actually feel that their cars and other things have spirits or souls(?), if I remember correctly.

Looking at this 51 year old one-owner, 334(est)lb of artfully arranged metal and English rotary compressor powered(I think)refrigerator, I swear it said something to me. But it didn't include clear instructions....on what's ailing it.

ULTRAMATIC - THANK YOU - I'm overwhelmed right now. Your refrigerator is working, still? I hope so. Cool is good...to necessary.

 

[rp2813]

A Fridge Named Manhattan?

I think it looks pretty good underneath, and I hope the fix is an easy one. 

 

A crazy good deal at $24.  

 

[Ultramatic]

 

 

You're very welcomed Phil. I know that giddy feeling! The General Electric is purring away. Milk is ice-cold, frozen food hard as a rock. I only wish it was the bigger version. But finding one that swings to the left is rare, so I jumped at this one. Don't you worry Phil, that gorgeous Frigidaire will be working in no time.

 

[hippiedoll]

phil...

CONGRATULATIONS!!!
on that really neat looking frigidaire refrigerator. i dig on the foot pedal for the freezer. and the inside of the top part looks sooo clean!!! i'm sorry to read that something happened to it, to make it not work now
(

i hope you can get your new vintage frigidaire refrigerator up & running real soon!!
i'm keeping my fingers crossed that it turns out to be a super simple fix for you, to get this beauty back up & running!!
;o)

by the way, i'm curious...
what did you hear this beauty whispering to you???

 

[philr]

Phil it looks like it has a replacement defrost timer. I'm wondering if it could be wired incorrectly... Look at the wiring diagram in the scan of the manual I sent you. (if it's not clear enough, there's a better quality scan that Robert or Fred made of their manual that's also available for download in the Ephemera section).

 

You'll see that the original defrost heater has 5 wires going to it. It's possible to adapt common 4 wire defrost timers to these fridges but one needs to be cancelled. If it ever ran correctly with this timer, it should have been rewired properly but it's still worth to have a look at the wiring. You say the freezer floor was hot, that tells me there might be a problem with the defrost heater (it shouldn't even turn on in defrost mode if the freezer temp isn't much below freezing temperature as the defrost limiter switch won't reset above that temperature... Now, with incorrect wiring, the wire that was used for the fail-safe relay could allow current through the heater even with the defrost limiter contact being open. 

 

Here's the instructions on how to wire a replacement 4 wire Supco defrost timer with the Frigidaire 5 harness connector. I think you need to leave the green wire disconnected... What was done on yours? 

http://www.supco.com/images/pdfs/Manuals-Instructions/SC800%20Instructions.pdf

 

If you have a multimeter (any cheap $10 multimeter will work) you could also test the cabinet for any shorts to the ground. With the refrigerator being disconnected, place your multimeter to "ohm" reading and put one of it's probes on a non-painted part of the cabinet and the other probe on one prong of the plug, then do it with the other prong. If you see continuity, there could be a wire in the defrost system or the element itself that's shorted to the ground. 

 

If it's what's happening, remove the left plastic strip between the porcelain liner of the refrigerator section and the cabinet and remove both connectors from the defrost heater. Remove the light green/red and the white red wires from the terminal board. With your ohmmeter, see if the cabinet is still shorted to the plug terminals. If it's not, then you either have a bad defrost heater or drain heater. You can test the leads that you disconnected to see if either is shorted to the cabinet (one prong on one terminal, another on a non-painted part of the cabinet). If it shows some continuity, then you know there's a defrost problem. 

 

If that's what happening, just tape the terminals of both wires with electrical tape so they don't touch another contact and try to run the fridge again to see what happens... 

 

If that sounds too complicated, you can either call me or email me! I'll be a bit busy tomorrow but Sunday should be OK!!

 

 

 

 

[ovrphil]

I'm sorry - this thread belongs in Imperial and ..

What a wealth of information already.

Hippiedoll - Christina, the fridge said, "I'm so glad someone took me out of the
dark, homeless storage area and I didn't like storing ammo and guns, fyi".

Louis - yeah, size matters, in fridges too. LOL.

Ralph - Manhattan? I called the fridge Dusty, after the seller. I'm not into naming everything I buy, but he loved this fridge - his childhood fridge - and he was pretty intent on selling to someone who would care for it. I'll try.

PhilR - you are way ahead of me. I can do those things you instructed, EASILY.
I'll look at the defrost timer. It should be easy to check out what you detailed. Thank you.

I'm a little hand-tied right now for the next week, est, I'll get a multi-meter and check out any possible short.

Thanks guys. I hope this FPI-16B-64 can be resuscitated.

Phil
[this post was last edited: 10/3/2015-11:28]

 

[philr]

Some pictures... 

 

First (pics 1-2), the defrost timer is located behind that plate. The original style has a manual advance shaft that goes through that hole in the galvanized plate it's mounted to. Yours has been replaced by a generic type, I don't know if it's attached to that plate or just hanging there. You might want to advance it but to get it out of the defrost mode (if it's stuck in defrost). But to do that, you'll have to get it out of it's location. Instead of a shaft, it should have a small plastic wheel that you can turn with a flat screwdriver or even with your finger... 

 

Next, the plastic strip that you can remove to disconnect the heaters (with the fridge disconnected). First pull on the bottom part as seen in the picture #3, then keep pulling on it, slide it down at the top about 1/4 inch so you could remove it completely (the upper part of that strip is under the other one). 

 

Be careful not to break it but it ain't very hard to remove on this model! The pics should help.

 

Then, look at the connectors and remove the wires I talked about in the post  I made above in that thread. 

 

 

 

 

 

[philr]

Phil, here's a picture of the drain and hole next to it on my fridge that I took while I was on the phone with you. 

 

 

 

[ovrphil]

Excellent instructions PhilR

I see it..no problem, care is on its way. I'm good at breaking everything I touch. LOL! Ok, I have to laugh between all this. Thanks for the "proceed with care" notes. Thanks for the call and I'll take photos if the green wire is attached, and go from there, later on. Otherwise, maybe adjusting the D.T. will kick in the compressor - wouldn't that be "fun"?

UPDATE - PhilR/anyone(?)- I removed the DT(defrost timer) and no green wire is included in the circuit. The DT is a GE replacement. Turning the adjustment with a quarter, clockwise very slightly(heard a quiet click), re-attached ground wire but left DT loose on cement floor, made sure fridge was "OFF" in upper fridge area, turned on and compressor started. Here is the sound I heard before it froze the compressor(?)or stopped it. At least it is running again, but maybe just going around in joy, doing none of its usual work: :-(



The sound is making a liar out of me, I said it wasn't cyclical...but it is and it's the compressor, afterall. I didn't let it run, afraid it might freeze up again or cause the heater (?) in the freezer area to get hot again.

Other photo is shot w/o the drip pan. I removed the drain plug it had a grams of rust in it.
[this post was last edited: 10/3/2015-14:43]

 

[philr]

That's a strange noise indeed... Quite like what you described but not something I've heard so far. My 1965 top freezer refrigerator with a newer style 1/6 HP rotary (with no fins) made a similar noise without the ticking when I first plugged it. It took about 1/2 hour before it started to make more noise and that's when it started to cool... 

 

I hope someone else with more ideas chimes in!

 

The green wire in your picture seems to be some kind of ground wire? Is there another green wire that has been cut in the defrost timer harness? 

 

BTW, it looks like the condenser isn't like those I have in my 1964 and newer fridges. Mine are flat with no holes in them. My 1963 and older fridge have a condenser that's similar to yours. Maybe that was a mid-year change?

 

[ovrphil]

Ruminations

PhilR - I'm glad I could recreate the sound. You know , that DT adjustment looked like it was broken, as though it should be tubular, raised and some of the material(?plastic) had been chipped off. Anyways -

The green wire that you were talking about was neatly cut and resides in the bundled cord - you can see it just peeping out of the sheathing/bundled wire wrap. So it's non-active.

I haven't studied that condenser to know what you mean - but hmmm.

 

[cuffs054]

The "wetness" on the end of condenser coil, is that water or oil?

 

[ovrphil]

Cuffs054 - Thanks for asking - oil, no water. I haven't tried cleaning it to see where if any leaking is occuring. But no oil has leaked or accumulated.

Update - I let it run for just 10-15 minutes last night. The tap-tap sound comes and goes but it's mostly there and seems to be only the compressor. The panel floor of the freezer isn't getting hot anymore, but the front narrow panel that is right in front of the two refrigerator trays did get very warm(not hot). I'm trying to determine what's behind that full-interior width panel front, ahead of the two refrigerator trays.

 

[ovrphil]

Moving the rest of this thread to Super

My bad, I started it in the wrong place.

Continuiing this in Super:

Dancing with Frigidaire - my first mcm FPI-16B-64

Sorry, I started that thread in the wrong area..so from Shoppers Square : From there ... http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?61749_16~1 ...to here. Cuffs054 - Thanks for asking - oil, no water. I haven't tried cleaning it to see where if any leaking is occuring...

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