So I spent a good part of the day today working on this. I had a problem with the flame gauge on the fridge so I thought I'd check that out first. Removed the door, took out the fridge's mounting screws and pulled the fridge out a few inches. Immediately discovered why the gauge wasn't working properly: a mouse had made a nest in the top of the fridge and had eaten through the wire. The mess at the top of the fridge took a bit of cleaning and included all of the normal mouse nest stuff, along with about ten to fifteen acorn shells. Along the way, I noticed and fixed the following:
- gave the entire space the best anti-mouse nest cleaning job I could, then I spliced the blue flame gauge wire.
- restored plastic covering over backs of phone, TV, 12V and 120V outlets
- applied foil duct tape to seal plastic edges, preventing movement of exhaust into cabin from that vector
- R&Red faced fiberglass insulation from the top and sides of the fridge
- applied weather stripping to edges of cabinet where fridge screws in
- reinstalled the fridge to original position, taking care to make sure no insulation was near burner exhaust T and to place aluminum diverter at top of fridge to correctly shunt exhaust toward plastic vent cover.
- started fridge on propane (flame gauge works!) and checked flame color: nothing but true blue.
I let the fridge run for an hour on propane with all doors and windows closed (roof vent slightly open), and while the odor was greatly diminished, my wife and I could still detect a faint smell of exhaust in the main cabin of the camper, particularly from the area around the stereo unit. No exhaust smell detectable from the outlets, however.
I am positive that there is nothing combustible that is near the top of the exhaust tube. I am at a bit of a loss as to why I am smelling exhaust still. Maybe the prior owner got a bad gas fill? I haven't filled the tanks since I bought this in April.
Thoughts? Many thanks in advance...