Upgrading the the old sliding hopper lid hold up bracket on the Avalon Avanti wood pellet stove

[Don2222]

Hello
The lever must be pulled up using the flat tab to close the hopper lid. Too much pressure pushing the lid down without pulling the lever up can easily bend this lever and the hopper lid will never stay open.
This is what happened.
See bent lever Pics 1-2
The old pop rivets had to be drilled out to remove the bracket.
The new lever is thicker and heavier. Instead of riveting the lid bracket back in place, I used nuts, bolts and lock washers. See last pic.
Also to keep the nut from falling off, I used high temp RTV silicone on the end of the stud and nut.

Pic 1 - 2 — old bent bracket
Pic 3 - New lever installed
Pic 4 - bolt heads on back of hopper lid instead of pop rivets.
Pic 5 - model logo on front of stove
Pic 6 - new upgraded replacement part #