Whitfield Advantage replacing & upgrading an old broken scraper rod

[Don2222]

Hello
This old Whit had many hidden horrors like a the ash pan latch with a broken base plate on the inside. Split in two but all it took was a little welding! Also the bottom left door hinge tab dangling by a thread but a little weld there and bingo, good as new!
Now for the broken cleaning rod. The end of the rod weld broke so the rod pushes right through the cleaning rake!
Lennox Whitfield makes a scraper rod replacement kit part # 1475001 that is labeled for the Profile 20 & 30. Does it work with the old Advantage? I took the $105 dollar gamble$$$ and the abs the answer is Yes it does! Whew!
So here is the story.
The 4 nuts that came with the rod are small and do not seem to fit very well, so I got some nice Stainless Steel nuts and they glide right on! Good that they do when they are taped into the straight wrench and you are lying on your back with soot falling on your face! LOL

The new rod is heavier and with a good 1/4-20 nut on both sides there is more strength to hold the rack perpendicular so there is less racking which makes the rod much easier to pull in and out! Much better now!

Pic 1 - new scraper rod replacement kit
Pic 2 - cutting off the rod with a dremel
Pic 3 - cut rod
Pic 4 - lower half of cut rod dangling
Pic 5 - Threading 1st rod on with straight wrench
Pic 6 - manuvering the dangling cut piece up over the heat tubes on the right side until the cut rod falls down the ash chamber to the ash cleanout hole for retrieving!
Pic 7 - cut piece in hand!
Pic 8 - Old rod with cut for removal
Pic 9 - the end of the lower cut half showing failure.
Pic 10 - new rod secured to the rake and works even better and is stronger too