In article ,
nucleus wrote:
hey Meat Plow, thank you for your reply. i performed the test you
suggested, turned refrig on for 5 minutes, unplugged it, plugged
it back in, the compressor would not start until after 3 cycles of
the thermal overload protector. i deduct this means there is
adequate freon (it only has 4.000 oz of R134a), especially since
the compressor outlet temp is so low (possibly meaning that
line is not plugged. (and i have read that plugged lines are rare.)

i did not mention in my post, that over a year ago, the compressor
began having a rather loud noisy startup, which quietened after
about a minute. at that time, i asked a refrig tech about possible
noisy reed valves, and he suggested i continue to run the refrig
until it quit. so that is where it stands now, still with a noisy
startup, but with inadequate cooling.

If this unit is old enough to have a separate bi-metal thermal overload
switch and electromechanical start relay, check out the overload
switch as they can fail by self heating and that gives you some really
strange load sensitive operation. Our 1980's Whirlpool had that
problem, where it would run OK until a defrost cycle and then would sit
there overload cycling (a second every minute or so, up to several hours)
and them, like magic, just go ahead and work fine until the next defrost.

The replacement was a combined overload/start relay that appears to work
like a TV set degauss (using posistors or something like that). About $50.

Mark Zenier
Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)