Oops! Dometic RM8501 not working-FIXED!

There are many variations of the RM 8501 so what I did and others did may or may not work for you, but here it is:

In my 2016 179 HRE, the fridge had one fan at the bottom with a small black and red wire going to it. My thermal sensor had two red wires with spade connectors to it. I had power at the 12 volt distribution block, but nothing after the control board between the two vents in the back. 

From what worked for others and some of the wiring diagrams online, it appeared that the one fan had a black ground wire and a red positive wire that came from the closed side of the sensor. The other side of the sensor should have had power from the control board, but it did not due to me shorting out an internal fuse.

Using alligator clips to “test” my theoretical diagram I clipped one to the one of the spade connectors and the other to a positive on the distribution block and I heard and filmed via my iphone, the fridge powering up! I then clipped it to the other spade connector on the sensor and touched the positive on the distribution block and as I suspected, the fan turned on!

So, if you make this same mistake and think you have the same setup as I described, one side of the the thermal switch back feeds the hard to get at control board and the other will turn on the fan. 

Phew!