# Valve covers are stuck?



## DHeraud (Sep 12, 2014)

Hello all,

Back with another question! So I had some oil leaking from both valve covers on the Bolens. So I thought I'd check the gaskets and while I'm there make sure that the valves were A-OK. Well... I can't get the darned covers off! I'm afraid to use too much force and break something to be honest because I was under the impression that these would just come off by pulling on them gently. I've tried using a pry bar on the lip but no go, there's some give but still can't pull either of them off.

Any tips on getting these off? For the record, I took off those two nuts you see on the pictures.

Thanks!


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## GTcollector (Dec 27, 2010)

rubber hammer or hammer on block of wood, over the years they get stuck on, mine did


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## DHeraud (Sep 12, 2014)

GTcollector said:


> rubber hammer or hammer on block of wood, over the years they get stuck on, mine did


I'll give it a shot. Guess I was trying to be too nice to it.


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## DHeraud (Sep 12, 2014)

GTcollector said:


> rubber hammer or hammer on block of wood, over the years they get stuck on, mine did


Whadayaknow, that did the trick, I'll just need to clean out the slivers of wood that got onto the valves. Thanks for the tip!

Apparently I needed to put a lot more strength into it. I think it's mainly because of the configuration of the bolts and the plastic gaskets that sit in front of the valve cover. They hold the cover so that you kind of have to pull it straight out.

The cover's metal gaskets were in pieces, of course.


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## GTcollector (Dec 27, 2010)

DHeraud said:


> Whadayaknow, that did the trick, I'll just need to clean out the slivers of wood that got onto the valves. Thanks for the tip!
> 
> Apparently I needed to put a lot more strength into it. I think it's mainly because of the configuration of the bolts and the plastic gaskets that sit in front of the valve cover. They hold the cover so that you kind of have to pull it straight out.
> 
> The cover's metal gaskets were in pieces, of course.


Good luck, never been a fan of the new OHV, I do have on old horizontal shaft Tecumseh 16hp OHV, but it is a whole nuther animal


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