RETHINKING PROPANE USE ON BOARD: Dismantling the Hillerange Stove Part Two

NOTE: BEFORE WORKING ON ANY PROPANE SYSTEM MAKE SURE THE PROPANE TANK VALVE IS CLOSED AND THE SUPPLY LINES/HOSE ARE DISCONNECTED FROM THE TANK.

 A week after spraying some PB Blaster on the screws and flanges. I was back on board hoping it had done a good job penetrating the dissimilar screw and manifold flanges.  It worked pretty well on the twenty seven year old stove. I was able to remove all the burners easily: with no problem even though the flanges were pretty rusted:

But other items like the Gas manifold pipe and the oven gas valve each had one of the stainless steel screws that would not budge. Here a photo of the items I wanted to remove from the stove top as I would no longer be using them:

After removing the burners I started on removing the Gas Manifold. Because one of the screws on one flange did not budge I used a Dremel Tool with a reinforced cutting disk to cut through the flange:

Before continuing I also disconnected the hose that connects up to the manifold using a 17 mm wrench at the back of the stove:

 Even with those steps it still required a little extra "persuasion" to fully remove the manifold:

The last item I needed to remove was the Gas Valve which also had one screw that was bonded to the unit. But, I was able to pry it up easy enough and remove the valve.

I was amazed at the amount of crumbs located underneath the valve. But, I guess after over a quarter century of cooking things will accumulate:

 A quick vacuum took care of most of it. With the burners and manifold finally removed from the stove:

I was able to do a quick check to see if the  Coleman PowerPack 1-Burner Stove I planned to use from now for cooking would fit on top of the now partially dismantled stove:

Success! I was also able to close the sliding counter over it. So now all I need to do is a good cleanup of the remaining grime and then move onto the oven area of the stove to see what I can remove there.

 DISMANTLING THE HILLERANGE STOVE PART THREE CLICK HERE 

DISMANTLING THE HILLERANGE STOVE PART ONE CLICK HERE 

RETHINKING PROPANE USE ON BOARD: Dismantling the Stove Part One

When I discovered some nasty corrosion on the twenty seven year old Seaward Hillerange Model 3122 stove I starting looking into repairing it.

 As the cost of the parts to refurbish the stove rose and since it was already over  two decades old.  I began to seriously rethink the use of propane on board. I did an experiment last season using a Coleman single burner unit and one pound propane canisters for all my cooking on board. This worked out well so I abandoned the idea of refurbishing the Hillerange stove altogether.  But, since it is already installed and nicely gimballed I thought I could still use parts of it as a base for my new cooking system.

So now that the winter has finally ended one of my first tasks on board is to start removing some of the corroded components of the stove. After over two decades of cooking and having the cast iron piping and stainless steel metal and screws in contact with one another created some dissimilar metal issues. It looked like it might be tough to remove them.  It seemed to me the prudent thing to do would be to spray the attachment screws and flanges with a generous spray of  PB Blaster   .

 I let this soak for a while and then just to help thinks along took a small wire brush and brushed the screws and flanges areas with it to scrap away whatever rust I could:

This was followed by another soaking of some more PB Blaster onto the scrubbed areas. I'll let these areas soak in for a few days and then come back and try and remove the burners and gas valves. Hopefully, the blaster will have done it's job by then.

FOR PART TWO OF DISMANTLING A MARINE STOVE CLICK HERE