| Mounting charcoal canister [message #282106] |
Tue, 14 July 2015 16:25  |
habbyguy
Messages: 896
Registered: May 2012
Location: Mesa, AZ
Karma:
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Senior Member |
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Wow... I was tackling some projects on the coach yesterday and this one is the last one I expected to give me any problems (or cut up, bruised arms...).
I got the clamp loose, and expected to be able to just pull the canister up and out... errrr, no. Fighting with it for an hour netted no movement, and the bolts that hold the cylindrical mount in place are blind, with some sort of interference lock nut, so they just spun (and spun, and spun). Eventually I got caveman on the whole thing and just cranked on the mount until the whole thing came out, having ripped the sheet metal around the blind mounting bolts at the bottom of the housing.
Now, with this thing sitting on my garage floor, you'd expect that it would be a simple matter to extract the charcoal canister, wouldn't you? I sure did. And I was wrong, wrong, wrong. I ended up having to take the thing out in pieces to get it loose. Sure, there was a bit of rust inside the mount that might be trying to hang onto the canister, but it didn't make any sense at all that it would be THAT tight. After breaking it to pieces to get it out, I tried to push the replacement canister in, and realized that there's a molding lip on the bottom of the thing that would result in the same fit (and the same problems next time I wanted to remove it). Both of the canisters were the new aftermarket variety (probably the one you'd get from any of the GMC vendors).
Obviously, someone didn't do their homework on this, or the part would fit loosely enough in the cylindrical mount that only the clamp would hold it in place - that would be more than necessary. Whoever mounted the old one no doubt just jammed it home in the housing, guaranteeing that it would never come back out in one piece.
In the end, I just left the mount out, and bungee'd the canister in place on the flat panel the mount is normally bolted to. That should be more than adequate to keep it in place, and will save me loads of time (and aggravation!!!) next time I need to change the canister (hopefully, never).
Mark Hickey
Mesa, AZ
1978 Royale Center Kitchen
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