When servicing your pellet stove what nut or bolt is the hardest to remove or put back on?

Hello
Be descriptive please
One of my hardest is:
The Phillips head screws on the Magnum Baby Countryside Hi Limit Snap disc!
It is under the hopper behind the exhaust blower!
What is yours?

 

The bolt holding the right hand side (looking from the rear of the stove) of the oak. It is in a constricted area that is hard to get to.

 

Mine is the loose nut in front of the door opening.

 

Exhaust blower mount screws....they are just too low to the floor to bend over and get too....especially on my corner install

 

The back panel cover on the Francesca, right up against the hearth - crawling halfway into the fireplace is like being in a cave.

 

The allen head set screw holding the exhaust impeller blade on.

 

Exhaust impeller blade retention screw (Usually allen head but some are torx)

Most manufactures do not coat these with a no seaze compound, and after many many seasons they are a nasty nasty beast to get out at times.

 

Yup, they are.

 

After you are lucky enough to get the screw out, then comes the task of getting the fan blade off the shaft without turning it into a pretzel ...

I machined a little puller that slips over the fan hub and has two set screws to grab the hub.

The tool has a center bolt to push against the shaft.

Zooooop. fan comes off intact with the blades in good shape.

 

Probably the reverse thread nut that holds the impeller on,on an austroflamm/integra,and lots others now,as it tends to disfigure the impeller D hole,and you have to hammer it flat.Very annoying.

 

For me its a couple of back panel torx screws.
My stove is mounted diagonally in a corner and the stove is only about 6" to the wall on the corners.
I end up using a 3/16 socket to hold the torx screwdriver bit at a 90 degree angle. Do-able but awkward when you are leaning over the stove.
Everything else is easy. As long as you are a contortionist and have wrists and elbows that bend backwards.

 

Here are the specs on the fan puller

Piccy's with dims.

Material 1" steel round (Cold roll or hot mild steel)
After machining
Major diameter .900"
minor diameter at rear .775"
Rear inset .300"
Mill two flats to allow crecent wrench to hold tool.
OAL of part 1.125"
Major bore dia. .625" (Make to suit if your fan is other than 5/8" hub
Depth of bore .650"

Rear threaded for 1/4-20 jack screw
Side hole/s
Drill hole through on center .210" from bored end and tap 1/4-20 on one side... Enlarge other side to .275"

The puller slides over the hub... Insert a longer set screw through the .275" hole in the tool and into the fan hub threads, but do not tighten to shaft.

Thread a set screw into threaded hole in tool opposite the set screw and snug to fan hub.

Tighten jack screw against fan shaft and hold tool with wrench on flats.

Good dose of Skunk pizz and a clean shaft and the fan should come right off..

The longer set screw through the puller allows the tool to use the screw as additional area to pull on the fan hub.

Another good plan.

If your fan shaft does not have a flat side to tighten the set screw into, then use a dumore with the grinding wheel and make a flat where the original set screw mark was.

This will stop the set screw from deforming the shaft when it is tightened up.

The result is that the next time off will be much easier.

Some shafts have a flat and some don't...

A couple pix of an extra fan motor I have for the Big Whit.

No worries on the balance with the tiny flat... Too close to the center of the rotating mass and the speed is relatively low.
Many new motors come with the shaft precut with a flat full length of the fan mounting area.