Lets see your IH Refridgerator

[TravelerMan79]

Took a break from working on the system charge after supper and decided to tackle the cracked electrical cord, and broken freezer compartment door. I had replaced the plug previously but it wouldn’t close properly on the round cord. I replaced the cord all the way back to the moulded splitter with 1.5 m of new cord, with a 3-prong plug that would accept a round cord. When I purchased the cord at HomeDepot, and asked for a plug he offered me the same plug I already had. I mentioned that it was no good, and he said that was all he had and to cut back the cover and take it up! WTF! Also added a P-clip to keep the cord in place.

Next was the freezer door. It would no longer “spring” close, and there was a piece of cardboard wedged in between the door and the upper surface of the freezer. Lol!

All I can say it was a super pain in the a$$ to fix. It was another IH engineer’s wet dream and never meant to be serviced. Brought back memories of tearing down my Traveler. Haha! It’s fixed less the two screws that go on the side to hold the spring mechanism on each side. Forgot to put them in while assembling which was very interesting while keeping tension on the spring. There is no way to reach in on the side and turn the screw into the bracket for the spring mechanism.

 

[TravelerMan79]

Inside the freezer door was a piece of fibreglass insulation! Crazy! What the hell were they thinking!

I replaced it with a piece of 1” thk styrofoam piece I had lying around. Also, when I pulled the freezer door apart, four little “clips” were lying inside. At first I thought that they were for the screws which held on the inner plastic panel of the door. However, when reassembling the door, I realized they were some kind of decorative pieces that were supposed to be inserted into four slots in the door. Only problem, two of them were missing the little decorative piece that went inside the clip so I just left them out for now. The door was also banged up a bit and I managed to straighten it out best I could.

 

[TravelerMan79]

I realize now that I’m likely missing the bottom drawer and cover for the butter compartment, but that isn’t a big deal for me. This thing was also inside the fridge and I had no idea what it was until now. Lol!

 

[TravelerMan79]

The pesky freezer door hinge...

 

[gillis51]

A few years ago when I moved I took the door off my H84. During the move the hinge backing plate shifted inside the frame and I wasn’t able to re install the door. Finally after several years sitting I repaired the old girl and gave her a bath. This is my first IH fridge that I purchased around 12 years ago. It’s an H84 4/9/1950. Fairly complete and works well.

 

[TravelerMan79]

Damn. Went down to check on things things this morning and compressor was louder than normal. Checked air temp inside fridge with the probe on my multi-meter which was still inside and it read 51F. D’oh. Checked comp shell temp and it was extremely hot. Unplug compressor. Checked access port and no refrigerant left! Will pull another vacuum and this time will see if it holds for a few hrs. If not, not sure what the next steps will be.

 

[Greg R]

Checked access port and no refrigerant left!

Since you say you have some sort of experience in refrigeration; here's what I would do. Get rid of that cheap clamp on fitting and braze in a schrader tee. After a quick evacuation put in as much 134a as you can followed by some dry nitrogen to a pressure of 100 psi. Get out a leak detector and start hunting. If there are no leak findings, either the clamp on was at fault or there's a high side leak in the shell such as a mullion heater that keeps the door gasket from frosting up. If you can't find leaks, do a static test. Re-evacuate and put in dry nitrogen to 110 psi, make sure it's all equalized. Let it set 24 hours and see if there's pressure loss. If there is and you can't find it, it open to whatever you want to do with it. If there is no pressure loss, then the culprit may have been the clamp-on and back to square one on charging and getting it up to running again. It's trouble shooting for sure, but you won't be running in circles.

I would be tempted to put on a high side schrader too, but the problem with that is high side liquid can stack up in the gauge hose. Which means on a critical charge system such as these, when you bleed it back to the system through the low hose when you go to disconnect, you risk over charging. If you just vent it, the frig might be undercharged. A core depresser on the high side schrader can help with that.

Checked comp shell temp and it was extremely hot

It sucked some air, bad juju.

 

[TravelerMan79]

Yeah, I have some equipment, but no leak detector or nitrogen, but I do have a 30 lb container of R134a. I can braze on a fitting if needed. I’m going to have to think about the next steps. Red Tek sells the same refrigerant with a dye as well. They also sell the same refrigerant with some sort of “sealing” compound. Whatever it is, it is a small leak as even after 24 hrs, it was still holding at 20” Hg. I like your idea of brazing on a fitting, which I had thought from the get go. I even found a local source, but I decided to take a chance with the bullet valve. I’ve seen situations with automotive/mobile type systems that use o-rings where you can pull a good vacuum, but leak as soon as there is pressure in the system. Seeing as how slow it is to lose a vacuum, but so quick to lose the refrigerant charge, I’m thinking it is the bullet valve o-ring. However, it did lose its charge at some point, and that’s why it was junked. I was hoping that the leak would be small enough to last for several years though.

 

[Greg R]

That was the trick - backing out the valve

I worried a bit about this. Was the piercing "valve" backed out before it was clamped? If it wasn't and clamped on right out of the box, the hole is too big and it'll never seal right. Going with a schrader tee will eliminate the problem. As to leaks there's always soap. Put as much 134a in and an incandescent light bulb in the box for a few hours, (no more than a few hours it's amazing how much heat old skool light bulbs put out) to jack the pressure up. Then go around with soap solution on all available surfaces such as the refrigerant traces on the evap and tubing. If a HVAC distributor isn't close places like Home D will have some leak detecting soap for gas lines in the plumbing sect.

 

[Dana Strong]

Was the piercing "valve" backed out before it was clamped? If it wasn't and clamped on right out of the box, the hole is too big and it'll never seal right.

The piercing valves I've used all seal within the valve but that assumes the sealing material between the valve and tubing is leak-proof, meaning the valve is tightened properly on the tube. IIRC, some of those valves used hex keys for both the piercing/shutoff screw and the two clamp screws, but I seem to recall having one that used a six-sided cogged driver.
If one doesn't have access to nitrogen, sometimes it might be possible to find a mostly-empty tank of the helium that was used to fill balloons, the kind that are thinner and more lightweight but similar in shape to the 5 gallon propane tanks. I don't think that helium is pure, but it's probably good enough for flushing the tubing and to keep the inside from oxidizing while silver soldering it.

 

[gillis51]

Fyi I have a fridge posted in the classifieds. Located in MA, $125. Works fine.

 

[mongocanfly]

Sure wish all these that are for sale wernt a million miles from home....

 

[gillis51]

fridge sold this morning based on FB ad.

 

[bdgn01]

I just came into possession of this pretty HA-84 from a fellow Scout friend. It's in absolutely beautiful shape; from what I can tell all of the parts are present and just in need of a good cleaning. The only things broken are a slight crack in the plastic drip pan and cracks in the porcelain edges of the tub, but other than that it's a beauty.

I do have a question: I pulled the door racks off for a deep clean and the backing plates inside the door fell down and out of reach. I've pulled all of the screws off around the perimeter of the door in preparation to pull the interior panel off, but it looks like the silver medallion in the middle of the door is attached to something. Anybody with experience know how to remove this piece? I don't want to yank on it for fear of breaking brittle 70-year-old plastic.

 

[mongocanfly]

Very nice.!!!. Cant say I'm not jealous..

 

[MadMonkMort]

I do have a question: I pulled the door racks off for a deep clean and the backing plates inside the door fell down and out of reach. I've pulled all of the screws off around the perimeter of the door in preparation to pull the interior panel off, but it looks like the silver medallion in the middle of the door is attached to something. Anybody with experience know how to remove this piece? I don't want to yank on it for fear of breaking brittle 70-year-old plastic.

View attachment 223337

This is just a shot in the dark, but have you investigated whether or not that might be a "beauty cap" covering a screw?

 

[bdgn01]

This is just a shot in the dark, but have you investigated whether or not that might be a "beauty cap" covering a screw?

That was my first thought. I taped it up with painter's tape and turned it a bunch of times with a set of pliers—it does spin but doesn't seem to loosen or tighten. What I wound up doing was pulling all the screws off the perimeter and getting behind the panel to free up the fastener plates that had fallen inside. I was able to screw the racks back into place, and the door is complete again.

 

[scout2000]

that is just an incredibly good looking fridge. Congratulations on your find !

 

[MadMonkMort]

That was my first thought. I taped it up with painter's tape and turned it a bunch of times with a set of pliers—it does spin but doesn't seem to loosen or tighten. What I wound up doing was pulling all the screws off the perimeter and getting behind the panel to free up the fastener plates that had fallen inside. I was able to screw the racks back into place, and the door is complete.

I'm glad you got it back together again in proper working order, but I was going to suggest next that since you already had the perimeter undone, you might stick a fiberoptic camera behind the plastic to see what the back of that middle fastener looks like. As in if it's just some sort of friction or expansion fitting that can be popped out with some pulling, or if one might need to stick a really long set of pliers in there to squeeze it down to fit back through the hole it's grabbing, or if it's maybe a nut that's just going to spin for eternity on a screw or bolt (which I can't imagine, because how would they tighten it?) and that you might need to again grab with some sort of long pliers. Anyway, like I said, I'm just glad it's not an issue anymore and you scored a super nice looking working unit. I really like those ones with the little half condensers.

 

[MadMonkMort]

Inside the freezer door was a piece of fibreglass insulation! Crazy! What the hell were they thinking!

View attachment 217986

Fiberglass? Dude, I'll bet you dollars to donuts that was asbestos. I got rid of mine years ago. I hope you soaked that with some water first before you started messing with it, just in case. (And I mean really SOAKED it. You want to prevent any of those fibers from flying off.) You gotta double trash bag it, with both bags individually duct taped shut, and the outside bag marked as "asbestos". Then you can toss that out with the regular trash. And just to be safe, you'll want to "encapsulate" any remaining fibers by painting the inside of the door, and anywhere those fibers were touching, which would also help prevent any rust spread (preferably by brush and roll, not just spray paint, so you work the paint all around those fibers to lock them down, but even spray paint is better than nothing). Make sure you wear some PPE (N95 or better respirator) and work in a well ventilated area and don't wear those clothes around too far without throwing them in the wash or the trash, or wear a tyvek body suit over your clothes whenever you're doing any HAZMAT abatement work. If/when you trash those clothes or tyvek, the bagging procedure is the same as outlined above. That way people at the dump don't get exposed to this stuff either.
Sorry if I seem overly paranoid, but I worked at a state institution that had a LOT of that shit around, so we got a lot of training on abatement procedures.