Shaker arm "linkage" Q for Mark III owners

I like the warrantee idea too. Harman is not bashfull about charging for their products, so they should stand behind defects like this...

Title.. have you contacted your dealer for a replacement part?? I'd do that FIRST because if you try to warrantee a part AFTER you try to repair it yourself, the factory or dealer may not accept the problem as their problem... but caused by your and your 'repairs'..

Just my $.02 on the subject.. Buy it new, you paid for a warrantee... I'd use it...

Greg L

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I agree, the warranty should cover this and my first call was to the dealer on Wed. It is the usual story that this dealer doesn't know a whole lot about the stoves (they sell mostly pellet) and was waiting on a call back from Harmon. When I called them, I was hoping they would have a Mark III in stock that I could drive over and look at to see how it was supposed to be, but they didn't. At the time I didn't know the Mark I & II's were the same or I would have driven over to look at the Mark I they have in their warehouse. Looking at the pictures and descriptions you guys were great enough to post answered all my questions.

I did hear back from the dealer this morning. Even with my "unofficial" part names, the dealer said Harmon knew immediately what was being described and the problem that I was having and didn't need to see the pic's I had emailed to the dealer. Sounds like maybe I'm not the first to have this issue?????? Maybe a mfg. update should be made?????? Anyway, Harmon said that it is covered under warranty and the dealer should send out their welder to weld the rod back onto the linkage. Slight issue in that the dealer doesn't have a welder on staff to send out. Harmon then said to have the customer arrange for a welder to come out and fix it and they will pay for the house call.

So that is where I am now, getting a friend to come over with a portable welder at some point to get me back in coal burning mode.

I can get about a 5 hour burn out of a decent load of firewood in the stove. I got up once last night to reload so it wouldn't burn out through the night. I have oak that has been drying for 1-2 years depending on where I am in my pile (stored in a mostly dry pole barn).

Just to let you know that Murphy is alive and well....
I wasn't too concerned with getting the stove fixed asap since we have a propane furnace. Of course I would rather not run it full time, but figured for a few days it could be primary while burning wood in the stove could be supplemental. Well after supper last night I noticed it was feeling a little cool in the house and I go check the thermostat....65 and I have it set to come on at 67....hmmmmm.... I pull off the cover and the furnace board led is flashing an error code and the furnace won't fire up.
After checking about half of the 10 possibilities listed in the manual I decided to stockpile some firewood inside and get the stove stoked to keep the house warm while I considered this amazing run of luck that I am having!!! I tried a couple more things last night, no luck. I came up with an idea that worked this morning so the furnace is back in business.
Just in case somebody out there runs into something similar, here is what worked for me. Ours is a fairly new (6 yo) high efficiency model that pulls combustion air in and is vented through a sleeved PVC pipe through the wall. I disconnected a port where the combustion air is piped in and held my leaf blower to this port so it could blow any debris out of the pipe to the outside that may be causing a blockage. Nothing big came out, only a few PVC shavings that were in the pipe from when it was cut to size, but I connect everything back up and turn on the furnace and wallah..... it now works. There are a couple pressure switches that monitor this incoming air and maybe there was some small blockage that the leaf blower dislodged.

Interesting that some had what appeared to be press-fits and others (John) has a welded construction. On top of that, why is there an (what some are calling) expansion slot? A welded piece like Wood-n-Coal's would render the gap useless anyhow, and a press-fit would no longer be a press-fit with an expansion slot allowing the Hole to expand, again, that's kind of defeating the purpose.
Harmon now says it's supposed to be a welded assembly.....hrmmmm....more questions than answers I guess.

Wood'nCoal wrote:Sounds like a plan.
How does the Mark series do with a wood only fire? I've never burned wood in mine, except when starting it.

I burn wood a lot in my MARK III .PERFECT !!!, better than coal. Coal do not burn completely, fire goes out and leave some unburned (not completely burned) leftovers. If you load stove full at night sometimes possible to have gloving ashes at morning to start fire again (ash wood or oak wood).Serge.

There is a type of production welding called spin or friction welding. One part is spun on a machine like a lathe, the other part is held in a fixture, the spinning part is forced into the part in the fixture, creating red-hot heat and the parts reach welding temperatures, then the spinning part stops with an index to stop it at the right location, ..

The problem with this type of welding, is that if the weld is poor or bad you can't see any actual weld... the parts look like they are pressed together...

The crack mentioned implies to me that there was not enough friction, the part cracked under the force of the spin welding and then there was not enough friction to weld properly... looks like harman needs to go back to someone with an arc or Mig welder to assemble these parts..

Serg, you have a problem with how you are burning your coal.. it's not a problem with the stove.. I'll cover it on your first thread about unburnt coal..

Greg L

The Mark III is back in business. Had a friend take a look at it to brain storm a little, came up with the same ideas that were kicked around here. He headed over to a third friend who is a talented welder to drag him back along with his equip. Decided that if the rod from the shaker arm was left recessed a little on the hole in the linkage it would give a 1/16" or so to bead the weld so it wouldn't be so thin. There is more than enough clearance to the grate lever so it doesn't need to be ground down & no need for a pin.

Pic's of the fix below....they're a little fuzzy, the autofocus keep keying on the grate or lever rather than the weld.

He didn't want to be paid, said to figure an amount to charge Harmon and he'd donate it to church. So we're trying to figure out a fair amount to charge Harmon for a welding house call. I figure a door to door round trip for him was about an hour, including hooking & unhooking his trailer as well as the 10 minutes of welding here. What do you all think?

Looks good.
Regarding your photos, see if your camera has a "close-up" setting. I was surprised how clear my photos are, esp. since I wasn't using a tripod. I figure this was because with a close-up and the flash, a faster exposure speed is required, less chance for blurring do to camera movement.

a minimum of $100 for the house call and a minimum of $50 for the welding. You could figure mileage and all that but the basics of a house call and one hour of setup and welding should do the trick..

greg L
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LsFarm wrote:a minimum of $100 for the house call and a minimum of $50 for the welding. You could figure mileage and all that but the basics of a house call and one hour of setup and welding should do the trick..

greg L
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Ouch !
Greg might be using one of them Out'a Work GM welders

A request fer $75 might get a quicker reply

yeah, i would call the dealer where you bought it.

When was the last time you had a house call from a plumber or appliance repairman??? I worked with a buddy who had an appliance repair company about 20 years ago.. his minimum service call was $80, paid at the door before he walked inside, the rest of the dozen or so appliance repair companies were charging $100. I checked...

And, what is the cost of owning, learning to operate a portable welder, and safely weld up a part standing on your head in someones living room??

I wouldn't load up a toolbox, or welder, grab what I may or may not need, get two changes of clothes or a clean set of coverals to protect the house's carpeting.. and drive off to someplace to fix what some company that charges TOP DOLLAR for their product won't warantee overnight with a new part.. not a chance for less than $100...and once I strike an arc, it's minimum of $50, if not, then it's not worth it, I'd rather watch reruns of the history channel.

I fabricate lots of steel custom made parts for trucks, snow plows, trailers, hitches. etc... I build custom automatic trasnsmissions for hotrod trucks and sledpuller trucks, snow plow trucks... My shop labor rate is $50/hour.. have you checked what your local truck or car repair facility charges??? how about $100-120/hours...I have the luxury of picking and chosing my customers, they are lined up for me to work on their trucks, cause my shop rate is reasonable...and the work I do is specialized and superior to the dealer's and local shop's.

Nope, If harman can't keep those parts in stock, and mail one out next day express mail, and they want you to chase down a welder, have him drag his equipement through your house to fix a badly produced part then they should pay the going rate, certainly not a discounted rate..

and a response to CS and that union jibe:

NO I've never been A UNION worker... it's the unions that have choked the goose that lays the golden eggs till the goose is terminal.. GM, FORD and Chrysler [ex chrysler] are all sending their work out of state and out of the country because of the overly greedy millitant workers in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana... This is the industry that supported SE Michigan. and it is dying on the vine... they are about to rollup the sidewalks and turn out the lights..

I have ZERO, NOTHIING good to say about millitant unions... they are the scourge of good businesses. and are killing our country.

OK, rant over.

Greg L

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Cheap work ain't good, good work ain't cheap.
Charge a fair labor rate, with a reasonable minimum and you will have people waiting in line for your work.
I have a airframe certified welder do all my welding because he is meticilous and his rate is fair.
As for a house call minimum; what is it worth not having to bring the stove to the welders shop?

Exactly, said very well without all my 'heat'... sorry about my rant, I get upset over this kind of thing...

Greg L

LsFarm wrote:
NO I've never been A UNION worker... it's the unions that have choked the goose that lays the golden eggs till the goose is terminal.. GM, FORD and Chrysler [ex chrysler] are all sending their work out of state and out of the country because of the overly greedy millitant workers in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana... This is the industry that supported SE Michigan. and it is dying on the vine... they are about to rollup the sidewalks and turn out the lights..

I have ZERO, NOTHIING good to say about millitant unions... they are the scourge of good businesses. and are killing our country.

OK, rant over.

Greg L

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Thanks, Greg, for saying what I was thinking. Now you've got me fired up as well.
Practically everything we buy now is made "somewhere else". I just happened to glance at an eraser and I noticed it is made in Malaysia. A stupid eraser! I would search for an American made product over a foreign made product all the time. Now the choice isn't even there in most cases. We can thank the unions and the high cost of producing products in this country for that.
The unions are an anachronism, the day is long past when they existed to protect the worker's rights. They exist today to provide jobs for the union's employees and to propetuate themselves.
When there are no jobs for the union members to go to anymore because they have forced all the greedy corporations to send all the work overseas let's see if the unions will pay their member's mortgages and put food on their tables.

John

Unloaded my "New MK III" and winched it down into the basement, checked the linkage and it looks good. Mine does have the crack, just like the rest.

Looks as if it was welded and then ground down.

Took everything off and out of the stove and I think it still weighed about 300lbs.

BK