Difference in Lower Timing Cover / 36-2 Wheel interference
 

I'm upgrading my project motor to the ATI damper and 36-2 wheel. I battled like a MF'er to get the lower timing cover to fit in between it and the water pump and the locating pins are not lining up well. Looks like the teeth on the wheel are rubbing too. I'm tempted to pull it out and remove the rubber gasket to see if that makes a difference, but doesn't really explain the issues around the locating pins being quite a bit off. Doing some searching, looks like there's no "supposed" change in covers from '90 to 2005? I'm kicking myself for not dry fitting before getting the damper on. I've battled before with my other Miata motor but once it (the lower cover) slips in, everything screws to together just fine. I've screwed like no other to make sure sure the gasket isn't caught up, but something seems design wise off between the water pump's neck, the upper pin.

Helpful thoughts / experience to lend?

Ok, being a dweeb. I guess walking away and coming back to it was what I needed. Going to pull this fun thing off and put the cover on first. What a PITA.

I pulled the damper and reinstalled the cover correctly, before getting the damper back on. Seems to work ok, yet the teeth still at into the timing indicator part of the cover when I spin the crank.. This is a new FM 36-2 trigger wheel. The new damper and trigger wheel definitely make the process of setting the timing belt correctly a bit more difficult.I guess this was a good learning process to deal with swapping the cams once the motor is broken in.

Pretty sure there is a different lower cover on the later models. The early 1.8s picked up a four tooth wheel for miss fire detection that the 1.6s didn't have . I had some interference issues when I first installed FMs 36-2 wheel , it self clearances eventually...... Later on I found a later model cover that worked out of the box. Fredb