Dropped stuff nightmares...
 

Okay... top this!

Usually when ya drop stuff, and it hits the concrete,you know where you can find it. Draw a line from the right rear wheel to the left front wheel, and draw another from the left rear to the right front.

Where those two lines intersect, there's your tool. Exact underneath center.:D

That's if you're lucky.

I was into the intake on an '87 TPI a few years ago. I had the distributor out (need I say more?), and I think either the main bolt, or the secondary bolt for the distributor holddown fork/clamp bailed from my grasp. I froze, waiting to hear the thing hit the floor. I heard it hit something, but it had a hollow metallic (horrifying) tink.

I shined the maglite into the abyss, and there it was - right at the cam drive. Ya' ever get tanked, and yer mouth start waterin', 'cause yer about to heave???[sm=sick.gif]

I loaded up a toothepaste-sized strip of RTV silicone on a doubled-up coathanger, got it into the well, nestled it next to the bolt, and left it overnight. [sm=hail.gif]"Please be there not too much grease on that bolt."The next morning, it came up slowly, with my bolt.

[sm=happy046.gif]

Top THAT!

RE: Dropped stuff nightmares...
 

I have nothing even close to that story but it was a good read.

RE: Dropped stuff nightmares...
 

Good solution to a nightmare. I'll remember that technique. ;)
I had the air cleaner wing nut on the center post of the carb. Went to take it off to put the aircleaner back on, and the dang thing fell into the carb. No biggy, but when I tried to retrieve it with a screwdriver I bumped the butterfly, and down it went. I had to pull the carb, and thankfully, there it was, sitting on the floor of the intake. I had visions of it rolling down through an open valve and into a cylinder.
Whew, scarry stuff! [:o]

RE: Dropped stuff nightmares...
 

Great story. Smart thinking using the RTV. I can't top that. But here's a little story about screws in the intake tract:

My brother-in-law asked me to figure out why his lawn mower wouldn't run. It appeared to have very little compression. When I looked in the carb I noticed that the screw that holds the choke butterfly to the shaft was missing. I found it, after I took the head off, holding the exhaust valve open. Had the valve opened just a little more, the screw would have gone right on out. I could see dings in the top of the piston where the screw had been bouncing around. I put it all back together (using loctite on the screw) and it ran fine.

RE: Dropped stuff nightmares...
 

That was very smart: I have an opposite story about distributor "bolt."

Years ago one Saturday afternoon I got a call from a friend: "I'm working on my Ford and I can't get that bolt holding the distributor on to come off" he said.
"What bolt?" I asked.
"You know, you take the cap off and remove the little electric with the spring loaded arm, and there is this big, funny, eight-sided bolt. I did not have a socket to fix it, so put somevise grips on it but it would not come free." He went on to explain that he had then put a length of pipe over the end of the vise grips to get more leverage, and the bolt "suddenly came free" and now turned easily but would not screw out. He had tried to turn the motor over with the starter to free it up, but now the starter would not work.

Of course, what he was talking about was the distributor cam, which he had ruined with the vise grip jaws, plus he had broken off the teeth off the distributor driveshaft down inside the engine, which was why it hadturned freely, and then he hadmade it a hat-trick but turning the engine over with the starter until the broken teeth jammed internally.

I don't think his wife every let him near a wrench again.

RE: Dropped stuff nightmares...
 

I KNEW you were holdin' out Lee. :D
Ya know, all of these are worthy of "True Stories Of....". ;)
Which reminds me......

RE: Dropped stuff nightmares...
 

Nothin' like a little tarter-control 'Crest', for the engine, huh?

Carbon-control ???

RE: Dropped stuff nightmares...
 

no car nut should be without this list of stuff in his/her garage

1. large supply of TP (to clean up the code brown for those unfortunate incidents listed above)
2. change of clothes (see line 1)
3. telescoping magnet (to get those bolts and nuts we drop)
4. bendy flexy magnet (for those nuts and bolts we drop and hear that hollow tink tink sound)
5. borescope (so we can see where we are sending that bendy flexy magnet)
6. borescope that can be bendy and flexy with a magnet attached (for us that like the all in one tool)
7. a couple extra hands and arms (to hold open the throttle, turn the engine over, scratch/hit self in head)