Help with vendo 110 refrigeration

[Kenny G.]

I recently bought a 1957 Vendo 110.  Upon plugging the machie in I got not much more than a humm from the bottom.  I noticed that the compressor motor was plugged into a wiring junction box at the bottom, so I unplugged it from the junction box and then plugged it into an outlet.  It did nothing till I gave the compressor motor a tap with a rubber mallet and then it took off.  Within a few minutes the evaporater seemed to be getting quite cold (developed front after a while).

I still did not have a fan motor running however.  Upon unbolting the evaporator to get to the fan I found what appeared to be some sort of rodents nest.  After cleaning that mess up (YUCK!) I plugged the junction box in seperatly where the fan motor is hard wired in and nothing.  Upon giving the fan blades a good spin, the fan motor took off.

I then left the compressor motor and fan plugged in seperatly (bypassing the junction box for the compressor).  Everything seem to run fine and after about 2 hours the machine was down to about 30 degrees.  The only problem at that point seemed to be that the compressor motor and fan were never shutting off, assumably because I had bypassed something or because the thermostat was bad.

I left the machine to sit for about a month and just got back to working on it.  However now it sems the machine does not want to get as cold as before.  It seems that the compressor motor keep shutting off by itself.  Though it will usually start again with a ttap with a rubber mallet.

Any suggestions what my problems are to get the compressor motor not to shut off to soon and to get it to shut off when it gets down to temp?  Happy to provide any more info if I have left anything out.

Thanks! Kenny

[Kenny G.]

That should say it got frost on the evaperator after a while.

I believe the idea behind the junction box is that the thermostat will kill the power to it when it gets down to temp and thus kill the pwer to the compressor motor.  So, I am sure that is why it was not shutting off.  Is there any help for it when it does seem to be stopping though.

It would also seem after looking at the junction box that it does not come apart so I assume I'm going to need a new wiring harness.  It appears that Funtronics carries these.

I guess the question is where do I start?  

Thanks!
Kenny

[Kenny G.]

Anyone?!!!!!   Any suggestions?

[johnieG]

Hi! 1st plug the compressor back into the junction block,
then remove the thermostat from it's mounting braket & remove the two wires attached to it, tape the ends so they don't short out, now plug in the machine & observe if the compressor still wants to run (it shouldn't) if it does then there is a short in the junction block. if it stays off then the t-stat is bad. (or the wires that feed it are brittle & have shorted together.) start there & see where it goes...johnieG

[Kenny G.]

Thought I should follow up to my post.  I ended up buying a new wiring harness and thermostat from Funtronics for this machine and it's been in daily use for about 6 months now. (the main problem I believe was all in the junction block) I have the machine set to cool at 33 degrees.  I love this machine.  It works so well I just can't stand the thought of tearing it apart to resore it.

Here's a shot of the machine in use.

[Bob K]

Kenny G,
Don't restore it - it looks great!!  There's nothing like the look of a nicely worn factory original. Character!!!

I personally think restorations should be done only to machines that are really bad off.  

Your 110 looks right at home on Sam Drucker's porch there '>

Bob

[Kenny G.]

here's another view

Kenny where is that a buisness of yours? IS the front" building" just a recreation of a texaco  in a book or locally etc? looks sweet

[Kenny G.]

Thanks for the comments!

The Texaco station is inside my shop located in Tooele, Utah.  It's actually the front of my office.  The front of the office is done like a texaco station and I have a bit of a Pontiac/GM flavor thrown in to.

The link below shows some more pictures (thought not completed).  I have added some more things since then and am just putting the finishing touched on a 50's style diner booth I built to go in the office.

(hope the link works)

http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph...._photos

Kenny

[Jim]

I especially like the '67 "Trans-Am Look Alike"!
I used to have an original '69 T/A that I foolishly sold back around '87, but it was to acquire a '65 GTO convertible 389 tri-power. All original except the tri-power had been replaced with a Pontiac 4 barrel setup. The down side to this was that this deal never went through so I was left with nothing! No '69 T/A or possibly a '65 conv. GTO!
Oh well...
Any way, I like the shop, looks great!

[Kenny G.]

Thanks for the compliment on the "67 T/A".  I too had a real '69 T/A but I sold it last year to buy a '32 Ford roadster. (hope I never regret it).

[Jim]

Kenny,

If you don't mind me asking, how much did you sell the '69 T/A for...?

[Kenny G.]

My car was numbers matching and complete but needed a full restoration.  I did however have a ton of NOS parts that went with it. I had almost every piece of sheet metal for the car NOS except the hood and roof panel. It was a running car but did need it's share of work. No rust in the floors, but the quarters were a little bad.  I sold it for $22,500.
I can email pictures if you'd like (kennyg@trilobyte.net).

BTW, the hood on my '67 is a real steel T/A hood.  One of those sold about 3 months ago on ebay for $8000 (yes, for just the hood).