Cambelt cover distortion

I think you have to consider a number of variables here. No you shouldn’t have been supplied with a substandard item, however when you consider that Rimmers & other supplier have been far sighted enough to lay in redundant stock for a long obsolete engine, it shouldn’t be a surprise if irritations arise.
You should be able read the manufacture date from the “dials” molded into the inner surface. I don’t have an example in front of me at the moment as I’m sat in front of a roaring fire looking out on a below freezing garden & that should convey why I’m not going into either the workshop or garage to collect a suitable piece of plastic.
The dials will tell you the year of manufacture, the month, day & machine used, this for “quality control” purposes.
From then on it’s up to how the item is stored until the picker at Rimmers chose your item.
If during its lifetime it has been stored with a slight bow, that bow will have been “memorised”, warming it up to its plastic state & applying a reverse bow will in all probability correct it.
Voice of experience. M

What you say is true for some items but not all. My own experience recently (not from Rimmers); water shedder for the LH door - the plastic collapsed in my hand before fitting and I have had to fit several shedders to my MGF over the last 25 years (they are sticky on the back so care is needed to ensure that it does not glue to itself). Made in China......

Delbourt - I assume the country of manufacture is shown on the box/item you bought? If so, what does it say? Date of manufacture will also tell us much.

I come from a long line of “cheap skaters” where making a replacement for an item which appears to cost more than its preconceived value triggers an unreasonable reaction. We would scrat about for materials to “do” then hours making whatever it was & think we had beaten the system. Invariably we would produce an item far superior to that that was to be replaced & have that satisfaction.
Anyway I did this with the water shedder, making it out of heavy duty polythene & stuck it on with my favourite gaffa tape. It must have been on & off half a dozen times & every time I think to myself “that’s another £20 I’ve saved”.

So glad that it's not only me who thinks along those lines. I appreciate the art of mass production and cost per item. But sometimes, sadly more often now, it's just shoddy and poor quality items. There is a smugness beyond compare when you produce something that cost next to nothing and works. I know my kids always say bodge job but funny when they need something at an ungodly hour, and you knock something up how brilliant it is.

I went to look at why the top section of my cam belt cover seems to be rubbing against the pulleys slightly and was surprised to find the back part of the top cover is free to move. I expected the backplate to be rigidly mounted.

When the top cover front and back part are bolted together as normal there is a surprising amount of movement. The assembly can be pushed closer to the engine or pulled slightly away, contacting the pulleys. Is that the way it is supposed to be or is there something that should be anchoring it at the back to the cylinder head/ cam carrier ?

Just spotted a crack in the front cover. Would that account for the flexibility. Does it rely on the strength of the front and back sections together to keep it rigid and in place as an assembly.

Get yourself some thin cyanoacrylate & cyanoacrylate activator, mask off anything that you don’t want to stick, then open up the crack scissor fashion & using a cotton bud laced with the activator, clean both surfaces, if you can get to root of the crack drill a very small hole (1mm is ideal) allow the crack to come back together & open the top of the crack ever so slightly, (use your 1mm drill to hold it open) drip some cyanoacrylate down & allow capillary action to draw it down to the root. Once the drill hole is filled hold the crack closed, but not too tight that you expel the glue, squirt the job with activator, it should cure almost instantly. Make a cup of tea & wonder at the new skill you have just learned.

Oh & don’t stick your fingers to the job, it would be embarrassing to be seen sat in the engine bay firmly fixed to the cam belt cover.