Hey Mr G in Bath. I was having a few probs with that cover as well, so when I spotted your little write up I thought my luck was in, but "just pull it off" wasn`t helping with mine. I drilled the three screw out last weekend and went down to fanny about with it tonight. In the end I got a very thin scraper or two and squeezed it in between the cover and the gasket with a bit of oil (lots) on it. Did that both sides of the gasket and it did just slide off, took me a little while but the cover came off straight which was the object of the exercise. P M if you like, and I`m not too far from you in Kingswood. Hope you havent bent yours.
Regards,,,,,,,,,, Ozziedog,,,,,,, Gets there in the end