Grrr...can't get liner through the damper. How do I make it work without destroying the throat fram

if you do have to cut it..the new damper kits sit on top of the chimney..so it wont be a problem.

Just cut it! Who in their right mind would ever go back? lol Make it as easy as possible to clean. I wouldn't go oval then back.

Right, just cut. If needed, install top-damper like MeatAxe just did: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/58226/

Right, cut it. Don't use oval, you'll create a flow restriction, just like when you squeeze a garden hose.

Branchburner has it right.

I'm the kind of guy who is good for hauling things and lifting, but not terribly handy. You'd never call me to reframe a door or install cabinets.

But I managed the chimney top damper from Lyemance (which cost about 129 bucks from woodlanddirect) with no problems. Its a great system, and better for energy efficiency than the typical throat damper.

My installer removed that back angle iron ledge part and the two bricks directly under it (like yours, my vestal damper was built into the masonry) and the liner comes straight down and in, then. If you do something like that, obviously you have to make sure your chimney has more masonry under and in back of those bricks. (I can't imagine that it wouldn't, but I guess there's all kinds of builds out there!) we saved the bricks and it would be an easy fix to put them back and put in a top damper if in the future the fireplace needs to return to it's original function.

The damper frame in my chimney did have a kind of structural function, like supporting marital harmony. My wife wanted no changes, no cutting. (And I added a top-sealing damper to our other fireplace to show her the evolution of dampers, which did not impress her.) But by January, a few months after the damper frame surgery, she was loving the stove so much that the pain of surgery was completely forgotten. (And we of course found new, even more trivial things to bicker over.)

Just cut it.

My frame is built into the masonry, but my cutting consisted only of going through a piece of angle iron (at two points) that was free of the masonry. So that made it pretty easy.

Worst case you have to install a top damper and reset a couple brick to use the fireplace. No biggie.

I had the same setup. Cut it back in 2000 and haven't looked back. It's nice running the brush down and cleaning the whole pipe.