Harman Invincible Insert Slide Plate

[Dadof2nutz]

Last time I had a problem with my Invincible insert, you guys helped me out a lot so I'm back with another issue. My auger is turning but feeding pellets intermittently causing the stove to go out. I had a clunking sound coming from the slide plate as well. Upon inspection, I noticed the plate was binding up. After searching this site for similar issues, I pulled the plate & noticed a slight bend to it. After straightening & reinstalling the plate, everything seemed fine. Fired up the stove & for the first few feed cycles it was feeding just fine. Then the clunk came back & it started feeding intermittently again. I'm currently waiting for it to cool down before I slide the insert back out for inspection.
Can the slide plate actually wear out? Is there a way to keep it from warping? I mean, it's just 2 pieces of metal welded together. It's not a complicated part. I'm assuming the slots in the plate are to allow the fines to drop into the fines box, but the slots create a weak area & that's right where the bend occurred. Any info or suggestions you guys can offer would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dadof2nutz]

UPDATE: After more searching, I came across a video about the chamber under the slide plate getting clogged on a different model Harman stove. I pulled the insert for what felt like the 100th time in the past 3 days to investigate. The slide plate was still straight but wouldn't push all the way in. OK, makes sense if the chamber is clogged, pellets are blocking the path of the slide plate. Let me tell you, it's absolutely impossible to get ANYTHING into that chamber underneath the slide plate So after trying everything, I decided to reverse the hose on my shop vac and blow air into the chamber to dislodge all the crap built up in there. Man, did a whole lot of dust fly into the stove! After cleaning out all the dust, I ran the stove in test mode to check if my fix worked.All of a sudden, the auger started making an awful groaning noise. I thought "great, something's lodged in there & now my auger is screwed up". I ran test mode one more time & the groan stopped after a couple rotations. I looked in the burn pot to see if something was jammed up and fed it's way out. There, staring me in the face, was a crumpled up paper towel! How it got into the hopper unnoticed is beyond me, but from now on, I will be hypervigilant while filling the hopper to make sure this never happens again. Once again, this site helped save the day by pointing me in the right direction.
Here's the video I mentioned. Thanks Suburban Hippie for posting this!!

Same problem fixed. Solution below at my channel, The Suburban Hippie Experimentalist