I'm trying to get the little flaps off and am having some difficulty. We've talked about them BEING off, but not actually how to get them off. There are two little screws on each flap and, in trying to get them off, I barely started to strip one after it moved an 1/8 of a turn. So I quit before I did any serious damage to the screw-head shape.

What now?

Grind the back side flush with the shafts then unscrew em

even I can't recall everything thats in there but I never ask anyone to refresh my memory. I go and look. And sometimes I find things I don't even remember putting there. Never hurts to check as just maybe you'll find the answer to your next or a subsequent question while you're boning up. Others have found the butterfly plate removal sequence very recently it and follwed the process. Thats how they got their shafts out.

Sorry but doing the IM Workshop over, from scratch every week or so is a pet peeve of mine. And I'm perfectly willing and encourage people to let me know when something is missing. But asking before checking just because one can't remember seeing it could get old very quickly. Totally defeats the practice of keeping archives dont ya think!?!

even put a penetrant on them and waited.

I never encountered that problem tho if you have a small needle-nose pliar (or small vise-grip)with knurled jaws you might try breaking em free with that then use a screwdriver to back em out from there. They are VERY soft (so they can be squished from behind when installing). Also make sure you've ground ALL the excess from the back side of the shaft.

See? This has never been answered and I'm 100% behind helping anyone out on this type of thing. And let me know if this doesn't work and we'll go from there.

First, you grind the backs of the screws under the flaps flush with the shaft that it rests on. Then, from the top, use a small screwdriver to get the screws out (duh). However, if that doesn't work, or you begin to strip the screw, don't fret. Grab a pair of long-nose vise grips or locking pliers. Clamp the screw as low as you can so that it doesn't just slip off the rounded top of the screw. Turn. That should break it loose. If that doesn't work, grab your standard vise grips with a broad mouth and do the same thing. You'll most likely only be able to move it a little bit before the vise grips hit the inside diameter/wall.

*Note: I also had to grind the nose of my pliers so that each side was level with the other.

For the shafts, just wiggle/twist 'em out together. I also had to break that little greek-symbol "omega" plastic cover/bearing off the shaft for it to start moving.