COACH: 1984 Regal 35ft on Chevy P32 chassis


PROBLEM: My 12v interior lights quit working.
Breaker for converter was tripped.


WHAT I DID:
A. If I reset the breaker that the
converter was on, the breaker
would go on for a time and trip
again.

B. Also, a large 32volt/50 amp fuse on
the main coach fuse panel was blown.
(the panel under the closet with the
inverter,the main house breaker
box,and the other 12v fuse block)
If I replaced this fuse, it would
blow instantly.

WHAT I FOUND:
A.This large 50 amp fuse has a black
wire on one side and red wire on
the other side. The heavy guage
black wire is the positive feed
from the converter. The heavy
guage red wire goes out, under the
bed and to other places in the
coach. With the 50 amp fuse
REMOVED and the breaker on,
I get 12.4 volts DC on the
red wire and .5 volts DC on the
black wire from the converter. I'm
assuming the red wire is coming
from the coach batteries.

Now, if I disconnect the
converter, I get no voltage
reading on the black wire, still
get 12.4 volts on the red wire and
if I try to put in a new fuse, it
blows.

MY CONCLUSION: Has my converter shorted out?
I'm assuming that since it still
blows the fuse. But, why am I
getting a .5 volt reading with
the power turned onto the
converter? Also,why won't any of
my coach lights
run off of batteries with the 50
am fuse removed?
Thanks, K&E

If so, why am I getting a .5 volt
reading from the converter?

I figured out part of the problem since I posted. I checked the voltage across the fuses and there wasn't any...I went head and disconnected the converter from the fuse block and WALA!!!, I could put in the 50 amp fuse without it blowing and the coach lights would work (from batteries). So apparently my converter has shorted out.

My question now (although is more out of curiosity) is why would I get a voltage reading from the converter of .5 volts? And why would it blow the fuse?

Now, does anyone have suggestions on what brand, type or where I should look for a 50 amp converter? Looking back, when I got the coach, I cleaned out a lot of mice pellets from this area. Today, looking down into the converter, there were still some mice pellets I couldn't get and the transformer looked old and brown. That may be the reason it may have worked for a while and then shorted out. Better it happened now than out on the road....