After returning home I tried a few more times and finally resorted to pulling off the outside access panel so I could watch what was (not) happening while Kristi try to light it from inside.  I could see the igniter spark correctly & could smell propane so all seemed in order, so imagine my surprise when a flame shot out of the air intake hole and not the burner slots where it should have!  Thinking there must be problem with the igniter electrode alignment, I removed the sheet metal shroud around the burner assembly & had Kristi press the gas safety valve button inside so I could light it manually.  After several tries I never did get the burner to light, but each time a small flame would instead pop out of the breather hole just like before. Hmmmm...

I poked around some more and noted evidence this had been happening for some time, as the igniter electrode holder directly above the errant flame was scorched and the silicon-covered wire leading into it was stiff & cracked from the heat. The plastic grommet in the sheet metal shroud which it passed through was also melted.  (See my comments in Fig. 1 below)  Let me point out this is outside the burner box - yikes!  At this point I was convinced the safety valve was not operating properly and only allowed a small amount of gas through; which had insufficient pressure to make it to the burner slots but could leak out of the air inlet ports.

Fig. 1 - from Norcold N300 Parts Manual (pl_n300,n400_619128_120704.pdf)

I did a little research on the web and discovered others had been having trouble with their N300's and that Norcold had finally issued a little-publicized repair kit intended to fix ignition problems - see my thread on this topic.  Thinking it might solve my problem I ordered one & after a couple of weeks (Norcold sent dealer wrong part) I finally picked it up last week and installed it yesterday.

Thanks to Rich Hardesty's excellent step-by-step instructions it only took about 15 min. to unscrew the refrig, slide it out, swap the two wires included in the kit, and reinstall everything.  (The only thing I did differently was unhook the gas line, which made it much easier to slide out)  With everything back in place I turned on the gas, purged the line by lighting the stove, and held down the safety valve button, and pressed the igniter a few times.  Repeated this several times and saw no movement on the flame indicator gauge, but I did hear a muffled pop a few times which meant something was lighting so I went out to investigate.  Sure enough, the area above the breather hole was warm & fresh soot was on the igniter so that damn flame was still burning in the wrong place!

I was getting mad now so I yanked out all the screws again, disconnected the gas line & 12-v. supply, unplugged the 120-v. cord, and pulled the refrig. completely out!  It's surprisingly light so I put a piece of cardboard on my stove lid & set the whole thing on top so I could see what was really happening here.  (Actually, I didn't have a choice since it won't fit through the door!)  I removed all the sheet metal shrouds around the burner & the insulation above so I could expose the entire burner assembly.  Then I removed the igniter & thermocouple assemblies, disconnected the gas line to the pressure tap, and finally removed the burner tube.  No obvious problem with the latter, but possibly the orifice is obstructed?

One interesting side note and possibly the only good thing that may come from this exercise (other that getting this thing to work on propane).  When I removed the insulation covering the boiler tube, burner chimney, and the two electric heaters I noticed the 12-v. heater was just sort of flopping loose. This was in direct contrast to the 120-v. heater which was inserted into a metal sleeve welded to the boiler tube, undoubtedly to help with the heat transfer.  Coincidently there was a 2nd unused sleeve right next to it - could it be this was intended for the low-voltage heater?  I tried to slip it into the sleeve and discovered it would only drop down about halfway, so a quick inspection with a dental mirror revealed a slight bulge in the sleeve from the welding process was impeding it.  A few minutes work with a round file & some sandpaper removed the obstruction and voila - the 12-v. heater now lives in what I suspect was it's intended home!  I'm sure some assembly worker at Norcold tried to insert it correctly, and having failed like I did just stuck it near the boiler & used the insulation to hold it in place!  After all, they're not being paid to think, right?  And unless the inspector was looking right over their shoulder at the time it all looked fine with the insulating wrapper in place.  That certainly explains why the performance on 12-v. has always been lousy - hopefully the better heat conduction will improve things significantly!  Here's a great site that explains how these gas absorption refrigerators work.

At this point I plan to replace the burner/orifice assembly (PN 621953), the scorched electrode spark ignition assembly (PN 619153), and the melted plastic bushing (PN 61606522).  If that doesn't work, well...there's always the AC/DC Norcold DE-490 although I'd wonder about my sanity if I replaced a defective Norcold refrigerator with yet another Norcold!

The next day I called my local distributor & they had all but the bushing in stock, so I picked them on the way home from work. $25 for the burner & $10 for the igniter wire.  (I can find the bushing elsewhere).  It took just a few minutes to install the new parts, so I decided to test everything before I put the refrig. back in place.  I rigged up a small disposable propane tank to the gas inlet & tried to light it - nothing, not even a gas smell.  Hoping it was just a case of low pressure, I stopped at the local hardware store when we went out to dinner for some flare fittings to make up an extension hose.  When we returned I used a 4' piece of PFTE air brake hose to connect the fridge to it's regular gas source - should be fine for a test.  Then I crossed my fingers, held down the safety button for a long 20 count, & hit the igniter a few times.  Eureka!  The needle moved into the green so I checked the back of the fridge and sure enough, there was small but strong blue flame right where it was supposed to be!  Tomorrow I'll reinstall the unit & test it again with all the shrouds & stuff...hopefully I'll get a repeat performance.

The following weekend I reinstalled the refrigerator & tested it again - "Houston we have ignition!". While I was attaching the gas & electric I took a hard look at the whole area from the outside.  There were signs of water pooling under the refrig. and judging by the generous amount of caulking everywhere I'd guess the factory has concerns about that. It looked like water could easily enter along the bottom of the grill during a heavy rain (or washing) as well as through any of the vent openings with some wind behind it.  I had some extruded PVC trim so I installed a section along the bottom to act as a dam to block any water that leaks in.  There were even notches on either side just the size of a 1x2 that were left when the bottom plate was removed - not sure why as the extra space is really not necessary for access.  Some judicious caulking of my own sealed everything up tight.

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