Jane and John's RV pagesGoodbye Norcold, hello Frigidaire
Page 2 - Tools, Out with the old
Here's a list of tools I used:
While not a tool, locate/buy two or three furniture pads (blankets) to protect your flooring
Small four wheel furniture dolly (to move fridge around inside the coach)
Driver drill with a long extension and a #2 phillips bit
Drill, bits, countersink for wood screws
Table saw to rip trim to size
Miter saw to cut trim strips to length
Router and round over or ogee bit for a decorative edge on trim strips
Handsaw or thin kerf trim saw (to make vertical cuts when trimming face frame)
Water pump pliers, assorted open wrenches (to remove gas line and water line)
Rockwell VersaCut (a plunge trim saw to cut face frame - this tool worked extremely well!)
Small shop vac to hook up to your new Rockwell VersaCut (the vacuum attachment on the saw was extremely effective!!)
Pry bar
Long breaker bar (for removing the co-pilot chair mounting bolts)
Socket and wrench set
Recip saw with a short metal cutting blade (to cut the original floor support)
I may have forgotten some other tools, so this might not be an all-inclusive list
On with the job!
Of course you have all of your food unloaded from the old fridge, it's turned off, the coach doorway is prepped (screen door removed, co-pilot chair removed, etc.) and you're ready for a new adventure! Ye-haw!
First, shut off the water and turn off the propane.
Remove the doors and any brackets from the fridge. Remove all interior parts - racks, bins, etc. Pop off the plastic trim on the top and bottom mounting flange of the Norcold. Remove the four screws on the top and four on the bottom. You are now done on the inside. Move to the rear vents. On the bottom vent opening remove two bolts on each side of the fridge. On our unit, behind the top vent (remember, our fridge is on a slide) there are some screws on the sheet metal vent deflector (my term) that screw along one edge to the ceiling and along the other edge into the top rear of the fridge. Remove any screws from the bottom of the 'deflector' to the rear of the Norcold box. This is a little difficult to explain, but look at the picture - all will be revealed.
Remove the water line connection to the ice maker solenoid valve. Remove the gas line. (You did shut off the water and gas - right?) You will smell propane gas for a few seconds while the gas in that line escapes but that won't last long. Unplug the AC cord from the outlet and remove the white/yellow 12V wires from the Norcold circuit board.
Position the 4-wheel furniture dolly at the front of the Norcold and try to pull it straight out. Ours came out easily once I realized there were a couple of sheet metal screws to be removed near the top (accessed through the top vent.) Yours might be snug and you just need to pull harder or you didn't remove all of the fasteners.
Once the Norcold is removed and on the dolly, roll it to the front door and carry/scoot it outside. I think my buddy was inside and I was the outside guy. Be sure and put a furniture pad on the steps and where ever else you might mess up the interior of the door area. We sort of half carried and half scooted it out the door. Some have built a plywood ramp to make this part of the job a little easier.
Let's look at some pictures
Removing the co-pilot chair. There are four bolts that unfortunately do not have captive nuts, so removing the bolts is a two person job and on our Horizon are difficult to reach. If you can remove your tire, that will make the job simple. There was no way we could remove ours, so I turned the steering wheel hard over which gained some access. The bolts must have had thread locker and they were torqued down to I would guess 100 ft. lbs!
Here you can see the grab rail, plastic handle on the dash, screen door, and co-pilot chair removed
Disconnect gas, water, power (AC & 12V)
Location of our AC outlet for the fridge
If your fridge is on a slide and not a Winnebago Industries product, you might have some variation of the above. If you have a Vectra/Horizon of our vintage and floor plan, yours should look exactly like this
Two bolts to be removed on each side at the rear - the bolts attach the above plate to its neighbor that's screwed to the wall. The bolts on the left (aft end)
are a little more difficult to reach. Remove the two plates that are attached to the Norcold before you attempt to move the unit out of the coach
Remove the plastic trim strips on the top and bottom to expose four screws. Remove these eight screws. The plastic trim strips on the sides do NOT need to be removed. Remove the fridge doors and all interior racks, bins, remove the little black control panel - anything you can remove to lighten the load!
Here's the pile of removed Norcold parts (and our previously removed screen door) behind our friend's Trek
And the Norcold is out the door! Yea! The Lowe's guys took the Norcold carcass and all of the removed parts after they unloaded the new fridge
Here's the old guy (your's truly) basking in the glow of the newly created void
Page 1 - Introduction
Page 2 - This page
Page 3 - Preparing for the new fridge
Page 4 - Project wrap-up