New project time! The '62 Flair range

[turquoisedude]

Back at it

Yes your Frigidaire dealers are proud to bring you another episode of "Regaining One's Flair"....

 

OK, back to reality.  I spent most of yesterday and today in the garden and my brains may have gotten a bit baked - but what better way to take a shade break than to get back at the '62 Flair.  

 

My goal for today was to finish up the oven and clean the cooktop trim plates.   I figured I might as well pop the broiler unit out to give the oven a really good scrubbing.  Fortunately the broiler itself was not too badly gunked up. 

 

[turquoisedude]

I didn't mess around this time - regular oven cleaner was used on the rest of the oven and I think it did a fine job.  I can't believe what this oven used to look like!

 

[turquoisedude]

And just a note to anyone who's planning on removing the broiler from a Flair,  clothespins are a dandy way to keep the supply wires to the broiler unit from playing 'peek-a-boo' on you...  One more lesson learned the hard way!

 

[turquoisedude]

The cooktop cover, trim plate and condensation plate were pretty grimy.  Hot water, all-purpose cleaner and a lot of scrubbing was required.  It was well worth the effort, I think!

 

[turquoisedude]

And yes, I even scrubbed the outlet...  Well, after I figured out that it comes apart that is!   When I removed it from the trim plate, I noticed that the contact blades for the outlet were removable.  I took this opportunity to bend the contacts slightly and when I put them back in the outlet body, they were much tighter than they were before.  So, looks like I won't need a new outlet just yet after all.  

 

Unfortunately my scrubbing kinda messed up the 'auto' stamp on the outlet.  Dagnabbit.... 

 

 

 

[turquoisedude]

And here's something I have no recollection of where they came from when I took the cooktop unit out...  They were lying at the rear of the compartment and I have no clue as to where they should go.  I couldn't find any reference to these parts on the service document I have for the Flair range either. 

 

If anyone can ID them and let me know where they go, I'd be grateful!

 

I'm knocking off for tonight.  Maybe tomorrow I'll work on the oven door and the control panel.   It's going slowly, but I'll get there!!

 

[philr]

I think Jon had the same pieces in his Flair... See his thread! 

 

 

[turquoisedude]

Another day, another scrubbing...

Today's project was to clean up the control panel, the oven door,  and the oven racks.   Some dis-assembly was required...  

 

Here's the before pictures of the oven racks (well, they had just been sprayed with oven cleaner), the oven door, control panel, and the knobs.  

 

That last picture makes we want to go EEEEEUUUUUWWW!! 

 

 

 

[turquoisedude]

At least the after shot of the knobs is encouraging.  I was amazed at how well they cleaned up!  Of course I scrubbed out the white filler paint in the centres, but that's easy to fix.  

 

Now the oven racks were another matter entirely...  I'm going to need more oven cleaner.  

 

[turquoisedude]

To get the glass control panel off, I had to slip off the top of the oven.  And look at this!  Bojackery! Trickery! And Electrical Hanky-Panky!! 

 

To be fair Phil had warned me that he was pretty sure the Speed-Heat and Heat-Minder controls had been replaced (he must have peeked in here for the short time this Flair was chez lui).  Interesting that this model had a fuse on the original Speed-Heat installation.  I guess it was a fail-safe in case the switch went bad and was feeding 240 volts to the unit at all times.   I'll have to triple-check that the Radiantube that is in the Speed-Heat spot is the right voltage!!

 

But, bonus, there is a complete wiring diagram for the range and I found a date stamp of 5-62.  So happy 53rd birthday, Flair!

 

That was it for today's installment, alas.  I hope to make some more serious headway next weekend and next week, I'll be down in Ogden, so I have no excuse... LOL 

 

[vacbear58]

Cleaning up

Paul

First things first! Where did you get that Vactric cleaner from? According to Doug Smith in Moose Jaw it could also be branded as a President. You know the company went out of business in early 1960 so its at least 55 years old and maybe as old as 60. They are not my favourites but enquiring minds ... tap..tap...tap

Do you have a product called Oven Pride over there? It is absolutely THE BEST product ever for oven cleaning. It comes with a heavy duty plastic bag into which you put the racks and about half of the bottle of oven cleaner. Seal the bag and leave it sitting flat somewhere. Turn it every couple of hours so that the product can reach every corner of the racks and by morning they will look brand new. Its not to be used on aluminium but on chrome and vitreous enamel it is wonderful. Details on the link - and good luck with your cleaning

Al

http://www.ovenpride.com/

 

[turquoisedude]

Al, you've got a good eye!  It is in fact a President.  I hate to say it but I use it as a 'utility vac' in the garage as it's only got the hose...  I've had it for ages and ages; when I was a brat, the daily driver vac was also a President, but with a blue casing and the hose had a blue fabric covering with red accents.  I remember it well! 

 

No Oven Pride over this side of the pond, alas... but I'd sure like to get some...  I'll just have to content myself with multiple treatments of Easy-Off.   Guess what I'm doing next weekend??

 

[vacbear58]

President

Paul
Sounds like the President of your childhood was a Bylock, which were imported from the uk too, according to Doug who has extensive knowledge of not just Canadian cleaners. It can get a bit confusing as the early Bylocks were based on Apex designs. Having just read some of the other threads, would it be worth soaking the racks in a soliton of bio detergent and ammonia and/or STTP? Next time you are over hear you should try and pick up some Oven Pride, it's widely available in the supermarkets here.
Al

 

[luxflairguy]

Two other good items for stubborn oven parts are Carbon Off and Soak Off. Usually found at places such as Smart & Final, Cash & Carry, etc.

 

[turquoisedude]

Finally got to work on the Flair again today...

I decided to spend the week down in Ogden but I've been spending way more time in the gardens than in the garage.  We had rain today and after a big mother of a thunderstorm passed (and Canyon was coaxed out of hiding...) I headed to the garage for some more Flair tinkering...  

 

To be fair, some of the work had been partially done on other days this week, like this repair to the burner rim of that right rear small unit that was rusted out.  I beefed it up with some JB Weld

 

[turquoisedude]

I also decided to paint the inside surface of the burner unit tray.  It was pretty badly rusted and I do hope to be using this range someday soon, so I thought I should do something to help fend off further corrosion.   I used a high-heat rust paint meant for barbecues and stoves; not pretty for sure, but I can live with it. 

 

[turquoisedude]

I tried a couple more treatments with oven cleaner on the oven racks, but to no avail.  Whatever is on there is now either burnt or rusted on (probably both!).   I've dubbed them the 'oven wrecks'... LOL   I'll have to keep my eyes for a better set. 

 

[turquoisedude]

I replaced that wire from the outlet to the fuse receptacle that had broken.  Yes, I am actually doing something the RIGHT way (as opposed to the 'turquoisedude way' where I would have spliced the wire and hoped for the best).  

 

I could only find a very heavy gauge insulated wire, but at least I didn't use plastic cable like has been done on some unfortunate Flairs before... 

 

[turquoisedude]

This was the easy part of getting the burner drawer back into place.  I'll futz around with the cover and those springs tomorrow (my apologies in advance to anyone downwind - the air may get a tad blue tomorrow...). 

 

After that, well, I think it'll be time for a power test!!

 

I did test the burners for continuity and I tested them with an ohmmeter to see if they fell in the ranges described in the Frigidaire doctrine.  All seemed fine and exactly as Phil thought when he had this range, the Speed-Heat unit has been swapped for a regular one.  I think I'll be able to live with that.  

 

Oh, and if I spit and cuss that the power outlet isn't working when I do the power test,  please feel free to remind me that I haven't put in a new fuse...  Danged if I can find a 15-amp one anywhere in the mess I call my 'workshop' in the garage...  

 

[philr]

Nice work Paul! So the Speed Heat burner reads how many ohms? It makes sense that it was replaced with a regular 236V burner as there's a neutral wire cut near the switches. If the 118 volts SH burner was still fine and they had just replaced the switch for the special replacement type 118 volts switch, the neutral would still be used and one of the hot wires wouldn't.

 

[turquoisedude]

Phil, I was reading about 5 ohms for both the small units when I tested them - I should have written down what the exact reading was and what I set my multi-tester to when I did the testing!   I think you had told me that a 10-ohm reading meant the unit was the Speed-Heat, so when I didn't get a reading of 10, I figured they're the 236v units. 

 

If you hear a really loud 'BANG' and read of a mysterious fireball in the Tomifobia Valley, you'll know why.... 

 

[philr]

Then it must have been 50 ohms!

 

[turquoisedude]

Yes, that's possible.  I can't remember what I had the multi-tester set on and frankly, I think I should be declared blind sometimes....  But I figured I was 'safe' since both the small elements gave me the same reading.    

 

[turquoisedude]

Uh-oh!  Guess who's been playing with electricity again (electricity couldn't get a restraining order, apparently)...

 

Where might these lead to??

 

[turquoisedude]

The big day has arrived!

Yes, I somehow managed to juggle a garage sale yesterday with some reassembly of the '62 Flair.  Today's project was jury-rig enough wiring to test it.   

 

[turquoisedude]

The oven lights work, but I managed to bust the fluorescent tube for over the cooktop.  D'OH! 

 

[turquoisedude]

But here's the real big test - what happens when the oven, broiler and surface units get powered up??

 

[turquoisedude]

It's all good news!

 

The oven unit heats and the thermostat seems to be cycling; I will, of course, test the oven temperature range at some point.  

 

The broiler unit heats up nicely!  Again, further testing of the adjustable control is probably a smart thing to do.

 

On my initial tests, I kept the surface units on for just a very short time - three of the four burners got hot fairly quickly.  The heat-minder (or non-heat-minder) unit didn't seem to work...  

 

I was lamenting this to Phil (who called just as I was doing the burner tests).  He and discussed replacing the unit and switch but the conversation drifted to other topics.  After I hung up with him, though, I remembered him saying that if the heat minder switch had been replaced, the indicator dial hadn't been and would likely be the reverse of what was shown.   In other words, the 'warm' ranges would be for high heat.  

Well, I tried the unit again, setting the dial in the 'boil' range which should have been medium heat.  The burner got hot!  

 

Now I was feeling adventurous, so I tried heating a pan of water with the dial set just ever so slightly to the left and off the scale of heat settings.  I got the unit up to a full glowing red this time!    So, I'm going either need to replace that dial scale or remember very carefully that this unit dial does the opposite of the others... 

 

Final happy note - I had to show Hubby that A: the Flair is working and therefore worthy of a place in a new kitchen and B: I CAN fix ranges without starting a house fire.  I showed him each burner control and when he looked at the left front unit, he recognized that this had been the Speed-Heat unit.  But get this, I challenged him to explain what was unique about the Speed-Heat burner, he said, and I quote "Isn't that the one that will flash 240 volts for a short time to heat the coil up, then switch to 120 volts?"   I am so proud of him!!  LOL

 

So, now to get the cabinet spiffed up.   WAHOO!!!

 

[philr]

Honestly, I didn't think you'd make this good looking again! I wouldn't!

 

[turquoisedude]

I guess this range was used pretty heavily over the course of its life in upstate New York and may have been neglected in more recent years.  

 

I am going on record to state that should this wind up as my 'daily driver' that I pledge to take better care of it and if there's any splattery, messy frying to be done, it'll be done in my Dormeyer Fri-Way skillet. Outdoors.  LOL 

 

Oh and before I forget - I have some observations about working on a Flair that may be useful to anyone else who may need to work on one.   

-When replacing the burner cover I found that getting the retaining springs back on was most easily done by first setting the cover in place and closing the burner drawer to just after the halfway point where the rear stops of the burner cover would contact the drawer unit.  At that point, if you lift the cover back out and flip it upside down, it's a HELL of a lot easier to stretch out and reattach the retaining springs.  You'll have to pull the cover forward enough to get the slides back into place, but if you do so gently, it should work.

- If you need to access the transformers for the Meat-Tender or the fluorescent worklight or if you want to check the connections for the burner drawer, all of the above can be accessed from the rear of the range through the access panel for the electrical hookup.   Note that the burner drawer will have to be slid all the way back in for easiest access to the connectors. 

[this post was last edited: 5/31/2015-16:01]