Help adjusting dome?

Buffalobill6369

i got a used large green egg and super excited to use it this weekend, however I noticed my dome is not closing tight and see that it’s off line. Does anyone have video how to do this or can walk me through it with steps. Thanks 
                                  Buffalo

RRP

Welcome aboard!

The planes of your dome and base are out of whack! Typically all you need to do is loosen the bolts and nuts on both bands enough so that you can force the dome down so the planes are the same. Then retighten. That will cure some of the underbite, but a small amount of underbite and overbite on eggs is not at all uncommon. The bases and domes are made separate of each other and slight variances can occur before they are fired. It's not like the egg was made together and then cut apart. The marriage of the two pieces happens when being packaged for shipping. 

Meanwhile read this for ideas or questions you might have.    

Place 1 or more quarters on the gasket edge at the side OPPOSITE of the worst side and then close the dome and loosen the nuts on both the dome and base so they are free to move and press down. That should raise the “good side” a bit and the bad side will go down. Tighten bolts, then remove the quarters. Since the gasket will absorb some of that thickness when compressed you might want to start with at least 2 quarters or even 3. There is the chance that you'll solve one issue and create another. 

Mattman3969

@pUreHkcol - any advice for the OP?  

Dealers on here usually help all they can 

Cornholio

This helped me with my underbite but I have an older version band with the shorter handle, not my write up.

“Crisis averted!!! I called this morning and spoke to Dewayne at BGE HQ Customer Service. He was extremely helpful and guided me through the steps to level out the top. It was extremely simple to do, even for someone who didn't understand the way these things are put together. 

So basically here's what was the problem and what I did. The first problem was that the lower band was not wrapped around evenly - it was lower in the rear than in the front. He explained to me that the lower band should come right up to the edge of the lower gasket all the way around the lower half. So I loosened the carriage bolt on the lower rear band and GENTLY tapped along the band using a block of wood and a rubber mallet until the band was placed evenly around the whole bottom. Then I tightened the band. From that point, the underbite had improved significantly, but there was still a bit of unevenness along the planes where the gaskets met and it still did not pass the dollar bill test. In fact, the gap on the rear side between the gaskets was slightly worse, but I wasn't worried because I knew there were a couple more steps to

 
Next step was to adjust the front to back placement to fine tune the sitting of the top to the bottom. There are two slotted acorn nuts on the top part of the hinge (above the spring) on both sides of the top that needed to be loosened so that I can 'wiggle' the top into a centered position. So I loosened all 4 nuts, wiggled it into position, then tightened. Now the top was centered properly (no under or overbite), but there was still unevenness on the plane of contact - in other words, it still failed the dollar bill test.

 
The last step was to somewhat repeat the first step (loosening the carriage bolt) except for the upper band. Wherever there was the largest gap between the two gaskets, I GENTLY tapped the band upward which essentially pushed the lid downward by it's own weight. Once I saw that the upper band was positioned in such a way that the entire top part of the egg sat nicely and evenly on the bottom, I tightened the carriage bolt of the top band and vuala! It was fixed. Dollar bill test passed all the way around the egg. No more underbite (or overbite). I'm happy as a clam!”

RRP

Cornholio said:

This helped me with my underbite but I have an older version band with the shorter handle, not my write up.

“Crisis averted!!! I called this morning and spoke to Dewayne at BGE HQ Customer Service. He was extremely helpful and guided me through the steps to level out the top. It was extremely simple to do, even for someone who didn't understand the way these things are put together. 

So basically here's what was the problem and what I did. The first problem was that the lower band was not wrapped around evenly - it was lower in the rear than in the front. He explained to me that the lower band should come right up to the edge of the lower gasket all the way around the lower half. So I loosened the carriage bolt on the lower rear band and GENTLY tapped along the band using a block of wood and a rubber mallet until the band was placed evenly around the whole bottom. Then I tightened the band. From that point, the underbite had improved significantly, but there was still a bit of unevenness along the planes where the gaskets met and it still did not pass the dollar bill test. In fact, the gap on the rear side between the gaskets was slightly worse, but I wasn't worried because I knew there were a couple more steps to

 
Next step was to adjust the front to back placement to fine tune the sitting of the top to the bottom. There are two slotted acorn nuts on the top part of the hinge (above the spring) on both sides of the top that needed to be loosened so that I can 'wiggle' the top into a centered position. So I loosened all 4 nuts, wiggled it into position, then tightened. Now the top was centered properly (no under or overbite), but there was still unevenness on the plane of contact - in other words, it still failed the dollar bill test.

 
The last step was to somewhat repeat the first step (loosening the carriage bolt) except for the upper band. Wherever there was the largest gap between the two gaskets, I GENTLY tapped the band upward which essentially pushed the lid downward by it's own weight. Once I saw that the upper band was positioned in such a way that the entire top part of the egg sat nicely and evenly on the bottom, I tightened the carriage bolt of the top band and vuala! It was fixed. Dollar bill test passed all the way around the egg. No more underbite (or overbite). I'm happy as a clam!”

That "borrowed and true" write up is one I have saved and shared many times over. I repost that as well as the one I did earlier today. I just thought what the OP was faced with was more due to the planes being out of whack instead of overbite & underbite. Hopefully somewhere in these replies he will find the corrections needed to solve his issue.

Cornholio

RRP said:

That "borrowed and true" write up is one I have saved and shared many times over. I repost that as well as the one I did earlier today. I just thought what the OP was faced with was more due to the planes being out of whack instead of overbite & underbite. Hopefully somewhere in these replies he will find the corrections needed to solve his issue.

Yessir, I think undoing things and tightening them back up from scratch might be the answer. I spoke with BGE headquarters when I had to replace my dome and was having issues and they sent me all new hardware to start over with.  I was just trying to add to the confusion!