Did our 1660 the same way, out the bottom in the same maner (we used a basement jack) and the come-along. Took a little bit of persuasion, but it came out and went back up with not too much trouble. We have the open gears as well, they will last long, grease them every 10 hours and put graphite on the gears (lubricates but keeps dust off!). This may be a good time to "beef up" this auger with poly, heavy duty auger, or hard surface, etc. Good luck and let us know how it goes.