Align Your BGE Cover in 10 Easy Steps! (w/ Pics)

My XL developed an underbite so this morning I went ahead and did an alignment.  I wanted to document the steps I took to help prevent any headaches for anyone needing to do this on their egg.

Side Note - I performed all this while the egg was still warm (<200) from an earlier cook.  My thought was that the bands would be a little more snug while cooking and reduce the chance of the underbite/mis-alignment occurring.  At the same time I didn't want the egg too hot risking the possibility of the bands shrinking too much and cracking the egg.

Here are step-by-step instructions:

#1)  Place the cover in the open position to so that both springs are in the relaxed state.  Remove both springs.  Carefully lower cover to closed position.

It is important you take off the springs,  otherwise you'll never be able to align the cover and base in the next steps with springs on (I learned the hard way!).  

Remove side tables if installed.



#2). Loosen both nuts on the bands.  Loosen all the acorn nuts on the hinges and the spring brackets (16 nuts total) that connect to the bands.  Do not loosen too much, just about a quarter turn after breaking the torque (You'll need to slightly open the egg in the next step).

Align the  cover to base as best as possible.

#3)  Slightly open the egg and place the four blue spacers in 2, 4, 8 and 10 o'clock positions.  Loosen the all the hinge and spring bracket acorn nuts some more.  Align the cover to the base.  Make sure the spacers are still in place.

Note - if you don't have the spacers you'll need to get some from your dealer.

#4)  Now the bands need to be the same distance apart as the spacers all around.



I was a one man crew, so I used some rubber bands to help hold the bands in place.



#5)  Tighten the two band nuts.  I didn't tighten to a specific torque, but ended up with an 1/8" gap between the ends of the band.




#6)  Horizontally align the spring brackets to the bands and tighten the acorn nuts (8 total).

#7)  Square up one hinge to the band and tighten the acorn nuts.  Make sure the second hinge is parallel to the first and tighten the acorn nuts.



#8)  Tighten (but not too tight) the 1/2" nuts on both spring bracket assemblies.



#9)  Tighten (but not too tight) the 1/2" nuts (4 total) on the bracket assemblies.  

Steps #8 and #9 will help with the side-to-side slop when opening and closing the egg.  This should be done periodically as they tend to loosen over time.


#10)  Lift cover to the open position and re-install springs.  Re-install the side tables if needed.  

Now you should be good to go!   Happy Egg'n!!!