True enough Wayne. They should have done a recall, but why bother? This way, Norcold can save a few bucks building a faulty fridge, not recall it, then generate extra revenue out of warranty for both Norcold and Norcold service centers.
Hope they're happy saving $0.03 building my fridge because I'll be buying a Dometic if I ever need a replacement.
I did the wire swap myself yesterday. It's a 15-minute job at most. The bottom line is once the resistance in the wire builds past the magic threshold, the Norcold N300 won't stay lit on propane after you release the button. If you're lucky, you had really crappy wires that failed inside the warranty period. For the rest of us, the resistance builds slower and thus the wires fail out of warranty. The faulty wires look thick, but in fact are actually thin 18ga wire with a lot of insulation around them. (The numbers on side don't lie.)
For those who need to do this swap themselves in the future, here's a loose guide:
1. Don't pay $8-12 (plus mucho shipping) for the 628119 kit. ...and
especially don't take it to a dealer and pay roughly $120 to get it fixed. I took the two wires to a local electronics shop and paid $2.68 for two 14 gauge wires (each 12" long) and 4 insulated connectors (came in a box of 5). They even crimped the wires for me.
2. Print out the Norcold N300 Switch Wire Kit Part # 628119 instructions from the link:
http://members.cox.net/k4gaa/NorcoldN300Kit.pdf
3. EDIT. For access to the wires, there's a couple ways to go.
Easiest way comes from Commodor47. Quoting from his post below (also see his pic below), he reached the wires in question once the radio was removed. They can also be reached from outside, once you remove the upper refrigerator access door. Next, remove the panel (wooden) and insulation. Do this and you can skip to step #8.
Otherwise, continue with steps 4-7 to move fridge forward below.
4. Remove door (flathead screw in upper left).
5. Remove 3 screws on each side of opening. I took out some of the extra bolt-head jobs but I don't think it was necessary to remove fridge.
6. Carefully pry up the wood trim piece at bottom front of fridge. I couldn't remove the fridge without doing that. I used a large flathead screwdriver and it worked fine. I pulled out the staples that were left in the floor as well. Personally, I think the area looks better without the goofy trim piece, but I suppose it's there to keep dirt etc from getting underneath the fridge...
7. Lift fridge up and out about 5-6 inches. You'll see all 4 connections for the red and blue wires as shown in the instruction diagram. I have a picture of it but can't get it to upload even after resizing it down. You honestly shouldn't need my pic though. Incidently, I looked at the back of fridge to see if any connections were binding. Not an issue. The propane feed line has plenty of "give" to allow the fridge to go forward 6 inches without harm.
8. I noted where the 4 connections were and pulled the wires. Took them to the electronics store to get replacements. Went with 14ga as noted above.
9. Put the wires on the proper blades (
firmly) and that's it.
I fired up the fridge on propane and it ran fine immediately!
EDIT. This has indeed helped quite a few other TM owners out there with a Norcold N300 built before 3/16/05. Give it a shot if you have one of these older Norcolds with the tell-tale "Can't-keep-fridge-running-on-propane" problem.
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