You can see the key is through the gears. I’m almost completely sure it’s the pins that the cover is getting caught on.

 

I don’t know what to do… really bummed with this. I’ll have to see if I missed the return window for the AB part - another $500. It seems the problem is the alignment of the dowel pins (they’re clean and polished) unless both of these covers has holes that are a bit off - the SKP cover was tight on both pins, but especially the upper one. The Eurospare cover slips onto the upper pin almost too easily (up to the point only a few mm are left, then it gets stuck, possibly because of the other pin that almost won’t go in at all). I’d tried hitting the SKP cover hard with a mallet - it seemed like I was putting in an unreasonable amount of effort as one hole in the SKP cover began getting damaged at the chamfer and others said this is supposed to slide right on, which is definitely not the case here. I didn’t try hitting the Eurospare cover that hard, but definitely gave enough force to see that it also wasn’t fitting on easily.

I don’t know what to do. The best option I can think of is to return the AB cover and either buy new dowel pins (not sure how to get the old ones out or the new ones in properly without damaging the block), then try the SKP cover again, and, if it doesn’t fit easily, I could either drill the holes a bit or file the pins.

Please advise… the SKP cover was half the price and has a Corteco seal, the water pump, glow shift pressure sensor/adapter and the sump studs in it already. It’s also already primed with petroleum jelly, so I’d rather use that one at this point.

Feeling pretty lost here and my only ideas as the ones I’ve listed above.

Thanks y’all

 

Maybe the pins are not seated completely into the block, or they are too long?

I would try removing one (carefully twist out with vice grips or channel locks), then try the cover. Or remove both, clean the holes, make pins shorter (or buy shorter pins) if length is the problem. See how the pins fit into the cover while the pins are out.

 

Can you match up with your old cover to check the cover holes ?

 

If I look at the original (broken) cover, the SKP cover (from RockAuto) and the Eurospare cover (from Atlantic British), they all look alike with regard to the dowel pin holes. The original cover was a bit tough to remove, but it came off in about 10-20 minutes. These other covers aren’t fitting properly - definitely not just sliding right on. Even with a mallet, it’s a ton of effort and the gasket dried out (put silicone on it) when I tried this the first time.

It seems that the dowel pin holes are slightly off on each cover since one pin went in easily with the Eurospare cover, but the other wasn’t going in at all, which is the opposite pin I struggled with on the SKP cover, although neither simply slid into place.

 

I tried to line up the cover with the pins over abs over, wiggling, mallet, pushing… I think I need to return the AB part and try to make the SKP part work. I really can’t tell if the pins are too long. Have you removed these before? They’re in there really tight, but it’s possible they got pulled out a little while removing the original cover. I don’t think that’s it though. The lower pin won’t go into the AB cover at all, but the upper one slides on almost too easily up until the last few millimeters, probably because the other side hasn’t gone on at all and that’s as far as it’ll go on crooked. I could hammer them in with a small hammer, but I think the issue is the holes/pins width rather than length. The pictures I shared show the cover hanging off a bit just to show that it’s not the woodruff key getting in the way - I’d know for sure that it’s the pins/holes if I could remove both and fit the cover all the way back.

I’m worried about tearing out part of the block if the pins grab it too tightly and when I’m spinning them out. I saw that AB sells the pins, so I guess others replace them…