Dewalt angle grinder question

[RinOak]

Sorry...weird question: I have a DWE4120 angle grinder, and would like to put a non-Dewalt dust shroud on it. It "almost" fits perfectly, but is bumping into the female threaded thingy for the guard.

My question is: Is it possible to remove the top/round piece highlighted in the photo below? It looks like a separate part from the body, but I can't tell if it can be unscrewed or not.

I don't know how many people out there are attempting to remove this thing (), but figured I'd ask before destroying things testing my theories. Thanks so much.

 

[neophyte]

Most angle grinders used to have the blade guard just clamp around the round section of the gear housing next to the arbor.
As for the highlighted post, I’m not sure what that is for.
Dewalt seems to be using a different gear housing design than most manufacturers.
On most angle grinders, that area would normally be for a screw to attach the lower gear housing, containing a bearing, to an upper gear housing, also aluminum, that also containes a bearing.
From the parts diagram, and your photo, that looks like it’s part of the gear housing casting, although whether it has a purpose, I don’t know.

If you need to remove it, you may have to fole or grind it off, and I don’t know if a replacement for the casting is available.
One parts place I checked said “discontinued by manufacturer”, but this sometimes just means it is a part the manufacturer refuses to sell as a replacement part.

https://www.partswarehouse.com/DeWalt-DWE4120-4-1-2-Small-Angle-Grinder-Type-2-s/154279.htm?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-736ppTS_AIVh7zICh3ntgZWEAAYASAAEgLcnPD_BwE

 

[nadogail]

I would think long and hard before I modified my Dewalt 4.5” grinder, It was new about 25 years ago.
My Harbor Freight grinders are a lot less valuable to me.

 

[RinOak]

@neophyte: Thanks. Screw #23 in the first diagram you sent screws into the piece I'm inquiring about. This just attaches a little spring tension rocker arm (#22) that locks/unlocks the orientation of the blade guard.

But in the second pic you sent, if you zoom in, it does in fact look like this piece may be built into the larger housing (i.e., you can clearly see the round thing on the left is much taller than the one on the right). My initial thought was that since they had a seemingly similar hole on each side, that this could be moved or changed...but in the end, it certainly could be built into the housing and not removable at all

 

[RinOak]

@nadogail: Yeah...I definitely don't want to mess with the grinder itself (especially since this piece secures the guard). My hope was it could simply be unscrewed and removed temporarily when using the dust shroud. More likely is I'll try to modify the dust shroud itself if it turns out it's not removable.

 

[tarbellb]

Take it off baby!

you can remove all the way down to where the bolt bottoms out,
but probably only need to take it down to the webbing tho