Getting the cover off the end gears

I tried to get the cover off the end gear train on my 1977 10EE to get an idea about how metric change gears would be mounted in there. Facing the back of the headstock: The cover won't come off towards me because the pulley on the end of the spindle interferes. It can't be moved out to the right because the headstock oil drain pipe interferes.(possibly if I took that out, I could get the cover out that way, but I suspect that would just allow me to move it a bit further to the right and then some part of the headstock casting or bed casting would interfere.) I can't move it out to the left because the factory mounted hand lever collet closer support arm (or what ever it's called) interferes. Do I really have to remove this-something I'd rather not do as I'm not sure it would automatically go back on in proper alignment- in order to get the cover clear, or am I missing something?