Hi Jerry, we are involved with PowerClean in Australia. Were you aware of the design advantage of that exhaust diverter on the Freedom? The case metal on the exhaust diverter is hardened steel. The flapper inside is a softer metal. The wear point is the flapper not the casing. That is a five to ten minute job to replace the flapper. There is no need to remove the exhaust diverter from the machine. Sweet.
About eighteen months ago there was a tweaking to the exhaust diverter system made. Because the facing plates were so finely honed there was no need for any gaskets between the facing plate and the exhaust diverter housing. The four bolts holding the facing plates to the housing were torque set. This was the problematic area, getting the bolts torque correctly for any handy person who wanted to do any on site repairs.
To tight and with the expansion of the diverter from the exhaust gas heat and if they were to tight it sometimes would break the bolt.
This was over come about eighteen months ago by introducing an exhaust gasket on the facing plates and under the nuts they now have copper springs to cater for the expansion. For those that want to do it themselves it is not as critical to have the tension correct. As long as the spring is compressed about half way, you will be right. The springs take up the tension as the heated metal expands.
So to rebuild an exhaust diverter it is very inexpensive thing to do and very quick. Undo the bolt on the yoke arm to the flapper, undo the four bolts on the facing plate, remove the flapper, put in the new flapper, put in place the gasket each side, replace the face plate and do up the four bolts. Then do up the yoke arm to the flapper and you are back in action.
Gary.
