Even though I'd previously removed the supply tubes for another reason and reinstalled them and was reasonably certain that they were OK in light of recent events I felt that I had to do a remedial repair to make absolutely sure that I wouldn't be subject to the unpleasantness of an explosion. At that time I'd worked from underneath but that's awkward so I decided to remove the stove.
I decided to remove the glass lid as a precaution. Happy to find that the hinges are only held on with plastic nuts and that it was easy to remove first.
Disconnected the gas line, easy enough but quite tight.
Removed the 4 black plugs from the top surface and used a Phillips screwdriver to partly undo the screws enough to let the 4 plastic feet underneath rotate enough to swing sideways and let the stove top be removed.
I was aware that the two wires were still connected. It would have been awkward to disconnect them lying on my back reaching in and I was happy that there was enough slack to lift the top out and then disconnect the wires.
I will be doing some remedial work to ensure that i won't have a gas leak. However I won't be commenting on what I'm doing. Wouldn't want that potential liability if someone then had an explosion. Hopefully there'll a satisfactory resolution to the current situation before anymore explosions occur.
Several folks have mentioned that their heat shield has fallen down because the two screws had vibrated loose. Mine had previously fallen down but not because the screws had fallen out but because they'd partly loosened and then vibration had enlarged the hole enough that the head of the machine screw could pass through. I installed some flat washers that were large enough to prevent the screw head from passing through the hole.
If installing the short screws it's awkward to reach in and up, hold the screw and two washers without something dropping down. I wrapped the screw thread with string to keep them all together.
I can't help thinking about the first propane stovetop that I installed in the first boat that I built a long time ago. It was a dirt cheap Coleman 3 burner non-marine stove top. I saw the boat over 20 years later and the stove top was still functional.
Let the fun begin.
Ron
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