Upgrading a goldenfire brown PP38+ With gold trim! - anyone else do this too?

Hello
This old PP38+ has a 100k ohm potentiometer with a dead spot around 5 in the feed rate knob. Not a hard fix but I wanted to do a full bore upgrade and I found a hole plug in the back of the feeder weldment to run Igniter wires in so why not? However, what will it take?
Has any of you guys done this?
Here is what I have done so far.

Pic 1-3 -- Original Stove (As you can see a lot to do!)
Pic 4 - Feeder Welderment with black hole plug where Igniter wires can go in.
Pic 5-6 Circuit board upgrade kit
Pic 7 - Scribe cutting lines
Pic 8 - Drill mounting and cutting holes

 

Hello
Before upgrading anything, the stove was stripped and painted high temperature Satin Black on the outside and flat black in the fire box with very high temperature auto header paint. The ash pan gasket was replaced with a high quality graphite 3/8" Rope,
Has anyone done this? Any tips?
This is as far as I got But also have a new burn pot, extension Hopper and wire harness with Ignitor wires and auto light circuit board!

More pics
Pic 9 - shows scribed holes (Left side is on the edge of the existing hole so it reduces the amount to cut)
Pic 10 - Taped bottom of Sabre Saw with duct tape to prevent scratching newly painted stove.
Pic 11 - Cutting sheet metal with Jig saw using fine metal blade.
Pic 12-13 -- Circuit Board Upgrade
Pic 14-15 -- Upgraded 1.75 amp Exhaust Blower and upgraded double paddle fan blade with each petal with rivet. New blade shown on right.
Pic 16 - Updated fire door and new flat aluminum very high temp header paint on the heat exchanger output grill and ash lip trim

 

Just a few comments so far.
I still have to remove the cord clamp plate from the template. They must have saved money doing it that way. So I had to flip the template around to scribe the last corner since the template did not have those slots.
The instructions with the CB upgrade kit Fig 9 show to use tin snips or metal shears to cut the hole for the control panel larger. I preferred using a jig saw or saber saw to cut the hole.
Also see Fig 12 in instructions below. It does not say exactly but it looks like the tab in the back of stove on the left side.
See instruction pics below. Any other comments?

Pic 17-19 -- CB Upgrade Kit Instructions
Pic 20 - Inside back left of stove shows tab. This looks like the tab to bend flat in Fig 12

 

Holy crap! I'm trying to scrape up the ambition to just give mine its shut down cleaning for the summer!

 

Thanks, I also got the 40 lb hopper extension so refilling is less often.

It is strange there is a knockout for the auto/manual switch and not the LED Igniter light!

Anyone need a brand new manual I Lite circuit board and wire harness??? See pic 5
I bet dimes and donuts if you solder in a mini DPST toggle switch it will work as an auto lite board!! Also the PP38+ CB just needs a new potentiometer!

Pic 21 - Auto/manual toggle switch knockout
Pic 22 - measure and center punch for Igniter led hole
Pic 23 - set up auto-lite circuit board for P43
Pic 24 - auto lite circuit board installed

Pic 5 - Brand new manual light circuit board and manual light wire harness

Pic 6-7 -- Holes and lands all there on Circuit Board to solder in a switch!!

Pic 8 - A PP38+ circuit board that needs a new 100k pot for the Feed Rate control knob.

 

Also upgrading the old gold door to the new modern black door was a bit of a trick.
Taking the black wood handle off the old door and screwing it onto the new door was easy.
However getting the door to close in another story!
After some cutting and bending it looks &!works like the brand new stoves!

Pic - 29 - wood handle
Pic 30 - 2 set screws!
Pic 31 - new handle shaft with 2 notches
Pic 32 - cut stove slot larger fornew door handle shaft
Pic 33 - bend stove lip up so door latch will close!

 

Thanks agian BHags for the liked and do not forget to buff out that auger and auger Chute!
This was so gunky and nasty, I had to put it on the bench grinder's wire wheel!!!

Also had ruffness in the auger chute! So I had to pullout the grinding stone!!! See last pic!!!

Now the auger turns like BUTTER!!

 

Hello
The new auger motor went in easily, just loosened the set bolt on the old motor and remove. Then switch the bracket that hooks on to the shaft of the other bracket that controls the slide plate to the new auger motor and re-install. Oops one of the new auger motor wires was not long enough to plug into the vacuum switch so I had to cut one of the wires off the old auger motor and add a male insulated spade lug on the bare end to make a little extension! LOL
Now it is time to put in the new P43 fluted burn pot. See the air channel carved into the back? This air channel sends fresh air up from the air inlet pipe to come out of the two upper corners of the burn pot to push the flame away from the back of the fire box. Bolt in the burn pot into the fire box. Cut a lytherm burn pot gasket first! Then run the igniter wires out the cleanout door and put the igniter in the cradle and plug in the wires then bolt the cradle into the burn pot. Oops, have to find some igniter cradle bolts, the old burn pot does not have any!!! It takes 8x32 hex head bolts about 1/2" long in that igniter cradle??

 

do-able, but wioth the time invested and parts plus the original purchase price? I'd suggest new........looks nice tho

 

Don...out of curiosity what do you have into the parts wise?

 

Hi
I am not just throwing money at it, I was very fortunate to get the stove for very little!
Also if I can fix the old board and sell it that will help. Yes this is a very extensive re-furnish but where it is slow, I do have the time and some of the parts. Like making an Invinsible auto lite, I had the opportunity since we did so much work to that old Invinsible Insert, I offered a free igniter and gave a good deal on a used burn pot with igniter cradle to make it work. Still a big exspense for most people but it worked out and the owner is very happy. So for the PP38+ it is the same story and it will work out. It keeps me busy and is a good accomplishment. I will not loose money and I am really gaining more knowledge and having fun in the process!!
List of parts so far:
Manual CB Upgrade kit
New Rev E Auto Lite CB
P43 wire harness
P43 Burn Pot & Ignitor cradle
Ignitor
Making my own burn pot gasket
Stove bright Satin Black Paint for outside
VHT auto header Flat Black paint for inside
Exhaust Blower - old blowe still worked and could be left in there if I wanted to Cheap out.
New Upgraded Double Paddle Fan
New fire door with mirror glass.
Also putting in a new AC cord
Jack and 2 wires to mount on back of stove for the room probe to plug into. See pics below.

This is just a super project to learn about Harman P series stoves and even though I have done many of these things before, there are new things I did like cutting out the sheet metal for the upgrade board which I may have to do in the future.

 

Hello again
This project is coming down to the wire because I am installing the P43 wiring harness with the igniter wires of course!!
The AC outlet where this stove is going is on the right side so making it come out the right side on the back will help. Also having a nice heavy duty 16 guage and long 9 foot cord is really nice.

Pic 1 - P-Series wire harness
Pic 2 - Roll of green ground wire from Home Depot to make all the new ground connections
Pic 3 - Installed ground tab connector using inlet air flange bolt. Also put additional ground lug and wire to connect to incoming AC Line cord. The 2 male grounding lugs will be used for the distribution & combustion blowers.
Pic 4-6 -- Brand new extra Heavy Duty strain relief and Heavy 16 guage nice and long 9 foot AC Line cord!! Strain relief just needs a 3/4" hole and screws right in. A lot easier than those cheaper squeeze me jobs!

 

Hello
Finished up the Blower big upgrade today!!
Had to pull the auger and put in the Harman Feeder air crossover tube kit! This keeps the auger much cleaner especially on the lower BTU stoves. It seeems that the Harman Advance and smaller stoves greatly benefit but it can be installed on all models and all the new stoves seem to have these days!!
Drilling the 25/64" holes in the right place was tough since it has to clear the arm that moves the slide plate. Then getting the brass flanges in from the inside was even harder! The red wire with a bend at the end to hold the brass mounting flange did the trick!! Then using a wire tie I made it even further away from the slide plate arm!
The 5 amp inline fuse will blow if the igniter shorts and dies. If that happens it keeps the circuit board fuse from blowing and the stove can still be started with gel in the manual mode until the igniter is replaced!!
Test mode was used to check the blowers, auger motor and vacuum switch. Then we fired it in Stove mode to check the Igniter and the ESP probe. When the stove got up to 135 degrees the distribution Blower came on!
All done - Amen!!
See pics

Pic 1 - shows kit with high temp silicone tubing and 2 tubular brass mounting flange.
Pic 2 - Red wire pulls in brass mounting flange in air inlet hole with damper open and out mounting hole drilled with 25/64" drill bit!!
Pic 3- After putting some high temp silicone on the brass mounting tube before pulling it into the hole, more high temp silicone was applied to the outside and the hose was slid on the brass tube so it could all harden up good and strong.
Pic 4 - Wiring is done and tied up with wire ties to keep the wires away from any heated parts!!!
Pic 5 - Black inline fuse holder on the yellow igniter wire with a 5 amp fuse.
Pic 6-7 -- it works -- all set!!