converter help

curtislow1 · 06-02-2012, 11:21 PM

Hi. I need help fast. I have 3 days before a vacation trip to Gulf Shores, AL. My converter cut the power off but it started working again. Now it's making strange noises and the lights dim and brighten. The cooling fans slow down like it's losing power then speed up at times. I can bump on the front and it will work for 10 to 20 minutes. How hard is it to get the converter out to check for anything loose? I have a 2000 Sunline Solaris.

**Sunline Fan** · 06-03-2012, 01:30 AM

It should just be four screws, I think, but I've never had one out before. Hopefully someone else can chime in with more detail.

From what I've heard about these converters though, once it starts acting up, it's probably going bad and will have to be replaced. Hopefully it's just something loose, but I kinda doubt it.

I'd look into something like a Progressive Dynamics unit for a replacement, though you could put just about any converter in there that an RV dealer would have since you are on short notice, but the PD unit is much better quality.

Gene · 06-03-2012, 12:05 PM

This is a long shot but I have a Centurion CS4500 and had the same problem you describe many years ago on my first trip with my "new to me" T2363 many years ago. The problem was a loose toroidal coil in the converter. (Whats that?? - see below)

If you don't have a Centurion CS**** then just ignore this post.

Disconnect shore power and the battery. Take off the screws on the brown cover and put that aside. You can take of the 4 (or is it 6?) screws that hold the converter in place. The top half is the DC fuses and the AC circuit breakers, the bottom part is the converter guts. You will see some big aluminum heat sinks for the transistors and very close will be some ferrite "donuts" (toroid coils). They look like a circular metal donut with a few turns of heavy copper wire around them. Mine were vibrating and flopping against the aluminum heatsink causing the converter to momentarily shut down. I very carefull bent the copper wires to keep them away from the heatsink and, as I recall, I may have put some crazy glue to keep the ferrite core from vibrating inside the copper turns that are around the "donut". No problems since then.

Gene

Gene · 06-03-2012, 12:48 PM

A picture is always better so I went out and took a pix of mine. Here it what it looks like when you remove the cover and lay flat on the floor. The red arrow is the coil and the red circle is where I carefully bent the wire from the circuit board that holds up the coil.

click the pix for a larger one.
.

curtislow1 · 06-03-2012, 01:56 PM

thanks for the help great pics looks just like mine i didnt see any problem with my copper donut .if the sys over heats could it cut off like that also? my fans used to run full speed when i turned a light on or the battery was low but my fans kinda worked when i bumped them or helped them get going but would slowly stop agine . so i went to radio shack and picked some up i just had to rewire the plugs to the new ones , so far so good i hope it was just over heating . i did pull it out an i didnt see any loose cont. or hot spots on any wires or on the circt. board thanks to everyone for the help