Struggling with maintaining adequate coal feed after a repair…

To start, my fiancé and I just bought a house that came with an Alaska Kast Console 3 and have never burned coal before. We had it running pretty well, but the rod controlling the coal feed snapped. It’s been repaired and the stove has been restarted, but we’re still struggling with controlling the burn and the coal feed. If the nuts on the rod are tightened it appears that it drops mostly unburned coal into the ash pan. I’ve also checked the stove at that point and the entire bed seems to be on fire instead of having the nice “horseshoe” shape that I’ve been told is ideal. I’m pretty sure it’s doing all of this while on the lowest feed setting. The stove is at its quietest, but the dial seems to be labeled backwards if this is the case. Anyone have input here?

You have to also let it settle out after making any adjustments to the feed adjustment. at least an hour or more, coal takes time to respond.

Post a pic or two of your setup, dial settings, etc...

Direct/power vent? or chimney. Baro Damper set correctly with a draft gauge. ?

Also, on most stoves i would think it should burn straight across, not a horseshoe shape if all your grate holes are clean, it should have good air flow all the way across and burn mostly even, in some cases if it catches or has any friction on the plate or sides or clogged holes, it can cause it to make a horseshoe shape burn pattern.

The stove is vented via chimney. There is a dial that appears to control the air flow to the fire/coal itself and a dial that seems to blow heat out into the room from the top of the stove. For the dial that controls the air flow to the fire, the label seems to be backwards in relation to the actual function. The current photo shows that the air flow should be fairly high according to the label, but it’s actually running fairly low. The photo of the burn pattern is what it looks like after being left alone for ~9 or so hours. I’m not sure if it’s noticeable, but the blue flames actually spread all the way back to where the coal drops in from the hopper.

Is there separate power cords for the combustion blower motor and the feeder motor? If so plug the feed motor cord into the control dial.