Wire colours.

[Wakesupremo]

Thanks again Chuck. Yes that is correct. The pic that you have shown is the board that I took off. there is a terminal broken off but I could try to solder one back on. The blue wire in the pic with a 'male' spade connection is the one that I don't know where it goes. Also my fridge doesn't have another switch, just the eyebrow' control which has DC on/off, Auto/off/gas. temp control.

 

[Wakesupremo]

OOOPs. I have now blown the fuse to the fridge and can't find where that fuse is!

 

[Wakesupremo]

I have now made a discovery. There are two big wires, a green wire and a white wire that coWhere should the board get its ground from?me from down below the fridge, The white has a permanent 12 volts and the green one has 12 volts when the chassis button is switched on. I assumed that these were 12 volt and ground!!! but the green goes to the fuse box under the hood and had a blown fuse. Possibly because I mistook that for the ground wire to the board!!! Where should the board get its ground from?

 

[Chuck v]

Wake,

Which terminal on your Norcold original board is broken off? You can simply match your board to this image to see the J-numbers of each position on the right side...and note that terminals J8 and J9 are covered by the AC cord in this picture.

Lets look very closely at the wiring diagram for this 663 model, focusing on the blue wiring leads:

Careful observation reveals that the mid-run blade connector splice labeled J12 has the socket half on the board side and the insulated blade half that mates with it on the loose harness side (and that lead should go to the wiper terminals on both halves of the humidity switch...) Similarly, the splice labeled J10 has the opposite gender sense with the blade half on the board lead and the socket half (with two wires staked into it) has leads that go to the lamp assembly and to the humidity switch left hand contacts for wither switch position. This wiring results in the two blue wires of the control board being connected together electrically for any humidity position other than OFF.

The use of gender specific blade connector parts ensures that the blue wire that is the voltage output of the control board is also the source for the divider heater when 'high humid' switch position is selected... The other blue wire on the board is an input to control circuitry that senses when the fridge is in a proper operating position and not in "storage" mode.

Now lets move on to the white wires in the diagram: NOTE that this color wire is used on board terminal J1 and has a two lead socket connector that has one wire going to the lamp module, and the other wire providing a return ground to the divider heater element.

I find no green wire on this diagram anywhere...can you provide a picture of what you have in your coach?

I found this discussion on a page about the 663 that underlines the need for a functioning humidity switch (or at least a bypass connection):

Is the humidity switch on your fridge missing because it was taken out? Again, a picture of your unit in the area of the eyebrow control panel would be useful... It is a perfectly valid test of your 663 to connect the board halves of J10 and J12 together to "bypass" the humidity switch. Let us know what you find...

Chuck

UPON EDIT: The board ground is provided by the 12 volt supply negative terminal -- no separate chassis ground is used that I can see... Terminals J1, J2 and J3 are all connected to 'ground' by this method.

 

[Chuck v]

Wake,

Just thought I would post this also to emphasize the need to bypass the humidity switch if it is not present.

The Norcold manual has a wiring diagram for the lower end 653 model that does not have the interior light or humidity feature -- but it does use the same control board. I have included the wiring diagram below with the connection of the J10 and J12 leads circled in blue...

Hope this helps you get comfortable with the bypass suggested.

Chuck

 

[Wakesupremo]

Wow. I can't thank you enough for all this info. My fridge doesn't have the humidity switch and there are no provisions for it so, I guess, its never had one. The two wires, one white and one green, are 'big' wires. as an electrician, I would say 6mm, The green is fed from a fuse from the fuse block under the hood. which is Live when the chassis battery is switched on. The white wire of the same size, is permanently live but, I have no idea where that comes from as whites every where else seem to be grounds. These are not wires that someone has ' bodged in' They are part of the original loom which you can see by the way they are routed.
So, I have no idea which of the two are supposed to be feeding the power to the fridge??

 

[Chuck v]

If you meant to post a picture of the wiring in this area, it did not come through...but it would be very useful to this discussion.

Getting back to a question pending in the thread above...which terminal number was broken off on your original board???

The control board gets its 12 volt power from J4, with the ground return on J3. Does your board have any wires connected to J4 and J3 from the 12 volt battery source per the wiring diagram?? Note the wiring diagram does not specify the colors of these two wires...but I have read elsewhere that this may involve a BLACK wire. Do you have a black wire in this harness at your fridge??

I do not see any provision for larger gauge wires that do not use spade type connectors...so it seems unlikely that either of the heavy wires -- again good pictures of your particular situation would be very helpful.

Chuck

 

[Chuck v]

I did a quick review of the DC wiring section of the Norcold 663 manual that was attached earlier -- the 663 needs at least 10 gauge wire and a 30 amp fuse (more if the length of wire run is longer...) Did you find the fuse in your RV, and what size was it??

Note the 10 gauge wire is just over 0.10 inches in diameter and would therefore be just under 6mm square in cross section...

Chuck

 

[Wakesupremo]

Hi again. Yes the green wire that comes from the underhood fuse box is approx 6mm and has a 30 amp fuse. This green wire is coupled with a white wire that is tethered together with the green wire which is why i assumed it was 12volt + and -. Now, after more 'playing' I have found that they are both 12volt. They are part of the original wiring. I can tell by the way they are fixed that they haven't been added later.
I think that the PCB is incorrect and needs the other one that you mentioned. Its so difficult without a wiring diagram that shows wire colours. Obviously the 2 elements are easy to decipher as are the solenoid coil wires. the others a tad more difficult!

 

[Chuck v]

YOU MUST POST PICTURES of what you are dealing with -- particularly the "broken terminal" ... as your text descriptions still leave ambiguities !! However, a structured discussion may yet reveal some issues to address. Lets number some questions and then you can reply. Please refer to these numbers when you reply:

1. What color wires (if any) are on the control board terminals J4 and J3 at present?
2. What wires were on these two terminals originally?
3. Have you looped (bypassed) the humidity switch by directly connecting board blue wires J10 to J12 as shown in my post #25 above? What were the results?
4. There are a total of 6 flying leads on the control board, four are red and two are blue -- is this correct?
5. There is one modular connector/cable plugged into control board at J15, and this cable goes only to the eyebrow panel -- is this also correct.
6. There are 9 spade terminals numbered J1 through J9 on the control board (the lower pair J8 and J9 has the AC cord connected to them -- please verify.
7. The Norcold original control board has a part number of 61647622 as shown in post #20 of this thread -- yes or no. If your present board is not of Norcold manufacture, what numbering does it carry? Are you still using the Dino D15650 for instance??

In your last post, you mentioned that "This green wire is coupled with a white wire that is tethered together with the green wire..." so when you say "coupled" you mean routed together and not electrically connected, correct? From that description I would guess the white wire is supposed to be ground and somehow has been shorted to the battery + (maybe melted together at a place you cannot observe it...)

Thanks for sticking with me as I attempt to get a more clear idea of what your situation is there with your fridge and your coach wiring...

Chuck

 

[Wakesupremo]

Thanks again. I will try to go through this one part at a time
J3 has a yellow. I think from the DC element.
J4 nothing as I don't have a ground from anywhere, I did have the big green on there before I realised that was the wire from the front with a blown fuse.
I havent looped the two blue wires as its now pitch black outside and too late to be working
There are only 2 flying leads. These are the red wires that connect to the gas solenoid.
Yes the 'data control plug goes to the eyebrow panel
Yes the lower 2 terminals have the 120 volt connected although I haven't put power to it yet as, in UK we are 240 volt so need to connect a transformer to it.
I have tried the original Norcold board 61647622 but get nothing. I have replaced with Dino board 15650.

I am concerned that the big (6.0mm) white wire should be ground ,by continuity test between the wire and the connection of grounds under the bed at the rear, there is no continuity. It definitely has 12 volts on it.

 

[Wakesupremo]

 

[Chuck v]

Now we are getting somewhere!! YES, the DC heating element has yellow leads, and the AC element has black leads. The image below is from a service document that I just found...

This document also shows the humidity switch which should be on all two door 6 CU FT Norcold refrigerators -- so can't imagine why yours is missing. Can you give a picture of your unit in this area?

As to my use of the term flying leads, this was my description of the wires leaving the control board -- so it includes the two red individual leads AND the wires going to the small socket that plugs into the igniter board. This is essentially everything that leaves the control board under the tie-wrap strain relief as seen in the green rectangle inn the picture below -- sorry for any confusion. The original Norcold board should have 6 such wires in this area...

Your picture in your most recent post above shows a white wire on J2 which is likely a ground to the battery negative (-) connection/circuit. It does seem like a small sized wire, but the mounting screw on this trace adjacent to it may be an additional path.

Still not sure what the differences between the FUNCTION of the Dino D15650 and the proper 618666 or 61647622 might be -- can you post a picture of the original Norcold board that is not currently installed as I would like to see what the broken terminal number is on that one...
I do not have an answer as to why your heavy white wire has voltage on it, but let's not dwell on that until we get to the point where we can re-install your Norcold board. To allow use of the Norcold board without a humidity switch, we need to plug the two blue wires coming out from under its strain relief tie-wrap into each other (they should have proper genders to do this...)

These two blue wires are seen here in the picture of a Dino 618666 below in the green circle and they obviously can plug into each other...

Starting to make sense??

Chuck

 

[Wakesupremo]

Hi again. Its number 3 terminal that was broken off but I have re soldered it on. Here are 3 pics. One is the front of the fridge. One is the original board that, when connected, has absolutely no life in it and the third is the 2 big

cables. I have fitted the 'wago' connectors as they were connected with twist ons before.

 

[Chuck v]

Thanks for these latest pictures -- the board and some of the wires look a bit 'smokey'. Was there a fire at some point? I also see the 20 amp fuse has a solid wire bypass soldered to it on the old board...that can be a cause of damage to the assembly since that hack !!

I see from your picture of the fridge front that no humidity switch was ever present on the panel...a curious variation from all the on-line data I have found on this 663 model. But since it is not there, when you use the old board, you need to connect the two connectors shown in the green circle together to allow the module to function.

Is your fridge a single door model or a two door model? I think the 663 was always a two door, where the 653 was a single door without the humidity switch...

As to the supply wiring (heavier gauge green and white, and now joined with the wago clips...) it does appear that this pair was original to the installation. That white wire absolutely would be expected to be the battery ground return -- no idea what may have changed elsewhere in the coach to make it 'hot' all the time. So lets take a look at a typical power center panel wiring for a coach such as yours... The full diagram was in the beginning of this thread, but it is repeated here with the green and white wires sourcing the refrigerator highlighted:

Hope this helps...

 

[Wakesupremo]

Thanks enormously once again. My fridge is a 2 door model. I know that board looks burnt but, I think, Its just incredibly dirty.
I have been sourcing a few parts, inc the Dinoboard, from a UK RV specialist. He has messaged me today saying that he has located a good, original board. Hopefully that will help to make things easier.
I know that this particular RV has had a lot of messing with previously so was expecting a few hiccups!!!!

 

[Chuck v]

Good luck with the better original board Having the correct components should make trouble-shooting a bit more fruitful. Because our picture of the eyebrow panel on your fridge was so closely cropped, it was not evident it might be a two door model. We discussed an issue with 'extra, unknown destination' blue wires back a ways in this thread -- do you have a wider view of the back of the fridge that shows these??

Chuck

 

[Wakesupremo]

Thanks again. Simple answer to that question is no but, They both go up with the other eyebrow wires. One of them definitely goes to the interior light. One has a 'male' spade and the other a 'female' spade. Ill try putting them to the appropriate whites with opposite terminals once I have the other board.

 

[Chuck v]

On the other (factory) board, those free-hanging spade leads coming out from under the tie wrap strain relief might also be blue, as seen in the red circle below... The white box shows a date code of the 23rd week of 1990, so this is an original Norcold board.

The green box is calling attention to the Norcold mounting screen in hole H3 being isolated from circuit circuit ground -- which is different from the Dino board you have in place now... This additional path to chassis ground is likely what blew the fuse during your tests... The other mounting screws may also provide a ground connection but it is hard to determine that from only the front side board photos...

Attach more (wider view) pictures of your appliance's wiring when you get the chance -- thanks!!

Chuck

 

[Wakesupremo]

Thank you again. I will. I am now convinced that the big white wire should be a ground so somewhere it has either shorted out or been fitted wrong in the past. I don't know whether that will run inside the coach or underneath the coach outside. It definitely doesn't go the the big ground connection under the bed. I am struggling to find where it should be terminated.The green wire had also been altered so that it was permanently 'hot' Now that I can see where it should be on the underhood fuse block it looks as the chassis battery has to be engaged for the 12 volt element to work. Presumably so that it will only work on 12 volt while travelling.