Projects Did You Ever Drop Something?

I'll look for an hour or more and, if it's irreplaceable, I'll ask my wife to help. She usually finds it in about 10 seconds and hands it to me with a smug, superior smile on her face..........

 

Had it happen once on an O/T bmw with “ non serviceable u-joints in the drive shaft.
Well ..... magically we pressed the old joint out, took it to a driveline shop and they found a replacement ( non serviceable )

Anyways going to put the new joint in and we drop one of the cups and the needle bearings fall out, find all but one......... looking, looking looking .......
little fucker was stuck to the tip of my buddies boot the whole time, wandering around the shop inside, out side etc...

 

I bought two early Ford wheel cylinders years and years ago at a local hotrod shop. Long story short one ends up missing and wasnt found until I traded my truck in years later. I cleaned everything out of the truck the night before I picked up my new truck, lo and behold theres the wheel cylinder in a little recess between the passenger seat and console. Hmmmm maybe I should clean my work truck more often.

 

Now this is very timely!

We have just done the same thing with a hanging pedal small snap ring.
It fell down and underneath the car with a "ping" and several bounces after that.......as of now........it's somewhere in the ethernet!

 

I've had years of practice, started with dropping parts from AMT models. A magnet on a stick is a must have with a gravel driveway. Bob

 

I'm working on my car on a piece of plywood in the backyard so I'm spending half my time picking through the grass looking for something

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Pinocchio.!!

Ben

 

Hey C,

I have those snap ring pliers and they still go flying somewhere. I am sure the family that bought my mom’s old Long Beach house in 1998, found tons of little parts in that backyard garage. We tried our best to find those parts that flew across the room, out of the garage door and drop/rolled under a workbench or storage closet. With exposed beams and cedar siding, there were additional places those little flying things could hide.

We cleaned most of it out to our best abilities, but those little things always find a way to hide from prying eyes, even good teenage/twenty something eyes. One big thing we left behind were those long, dual paired, chromed scavenger pipes that we had custom made for the 58 Impala, still sitting in the rafters. No, we did not lose them, but had no use for them in the present day. We just forgot until we did our final walk through. I am sure the new owners looked up there and were surprised at the “garage find.”

My brother always had a small drawer in the tool box that had extra washers, o-rings, clips and cotter pins. His idea was if we lose something, it is a three block trek to the auto parts store that has all of the replacements. But, he was prepared for most emergencies in the backyard garage. Most of my jobs in building the motor and caring after the initial build called for the small tuning things. Since I was using the click torque wrench to tighten down everything, I had to remember not to be the “gorilla” with hands that lost the small items.

After screwing up a spark plug washer and end clip for some reason, I tried finding a new replacement. A short bike ride to the auto parts store down the block allowed me to buy a box of washers and a couple of sets of those plug end clips. There was an added incentive for the bike ride to the auto parts store, across the street was one of the best hamburger/fries places in the neighborhood.

After a quick snack, a bag of spare parts and now, I was prepared. Still, parts did go flying around and the best way after a $#!@*, was to have some spares. A box of spares, a great snack, what more was there to satisfy a growing teenager? Plus, our friends at the auto parts store always gave us about 40-50% off because we were excellent neighbors and customers.

Jnaki

The thing was to be careful as time and pressure in the pits demanded. We did keep those parts handy and well looked after. That way there is no need to drive to the nearest speed shop for broken or lost parts. But, there is always some little thing that disappears in the garage or in the pits. (a spare set of race tuned spark plugs was always in our Impala trunk with the other spare parts. There was always the chance that between rounds, a plug would break off or get damaged.)
The Lions Dragstrip pits always looked organized until the racing started. Then between rounds, it was a scattered project area, with some type of organization as the needs arose. Return springs for the Strombergs? Hose clamps? Plugs?Etc.

 

Often. From my O/T Jeep Renegade Log -

July 29th 2006 Got a late start today but by mid-morning I knew Murphy was clearly in charge. When I started to get the Hurst shifter ready to install, the instructions stated that I had to pry the plastic cup bushing off the old shifter to place on the new Hurst shifter. When I did that, it went flying off into space to land somewhere in the bowels of the Krash Lab. ~!@#$%^ I searched for a couple of hours but gave up having found nothing but dust balls, desicated lizards and roach carapaces for my trouble. I must not be the only maroon to screw this simple operation up because Hurst conveniently provides the Chrysler part number for this little item (83500-519). I got online and ordered one from Chrysler Parts Direct

 

All the time. Always have the wife help look. She usually finds the item. Snowman

 

If you go where roofing supplies are sold, you can find a thing like a broom with a magnetic head that roofers use to gather nails that fall off the roof into people's yards. Can't help find everything, but it sure grabs the iron and steel stuff.

 

I once dropped my radiator cap while on a road trip, 50 miles from any type of parts store. The coolant made an unexpected burp and I jumped, the cap went flying out of my hand but in what direction was the question. The engine compartment did regurgitate the cap a few mounts later.

It's not the lost parts due to dropping that bothers me so much. What bothers me is the parts I set down because I'm going to need them in a little while but later I don't have a clue where I safely stashed them.
..

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/aletei...st-anthony-to-find-an-item-that-was-lost/amp/

Yes the nuns beat on me in grade school.

 

By accident I discovered that if you use a door/floor mat under what you are disassembling you will not lose parts. Buy a rubber door mat the kind with the little 1/8 inch posts or a rubber mat they use on bar tops. I have a couple, one I keep on my work bench another I move around as needed. I put it underneath what I am disassembling. Small screws, nuts, springs, c clips that fall out get caught in the mat rather then bouncing or rolling off the bench. Another benefit is the mat tends to contain liquids from running everywhere. Also if you slide one under engine bay dropped screws, bolts, nuts that are dropped can be retrieved by grabbing edge of mat and pulling it rather then laying on floor trying to reach them. When they get dirty I scrub with soap and water or hit with pressure washer or just replace.

 

And then there's this entertaining event: you're in the house working on something that involves some tiny part, like a setscrew or a circlip or some special decorative fastener for a light fixture. The important thing is that whatever it is, it's small and almost impossible to source another one in your remaining lifetime. You drop it. If there's ANY orifice in the floor bigger than 1/4" like a crack, knothole, hole around a water pipe, whatever you drop moves faster than the speed of light towards that hole either in a straight line or after ricocheting and bouncing around the room for what seems like half the afternoon but never fails to get there. Never, ever, ever does it fail. Ever. If I was a golfer I'd get at least a half-dozen hole-in-ones for every round of golf.

 

Ot, but I dropped a tiny spring from a camera shutter in shag carpet years ago. Spent the next few hours crawling around on the ground with an old movie camera light bar. Finally found the damn thing and got the shutter reassembled. Worked perfectly except that it was opposite of how it was supposed to work (closed when you hit the button and then opened). Spent several more hours trying to figure that out but never did. All for a crappy 10 dollar yard sale camera. Still have the damn thing in a box in the closet. Some people say I'm stubborn

 

It all started with the infamous blowgun on the air compressor. I spent the better part of an 2 hours looking for a carb check ball spring that never existed. Then on same carb I’m trying to figure why I have 2 check balls. Turns out it used the second one for weight instead of the spring I was searching for. I nearly went insane in the meantime.


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You always find the last place you look. Always.

 

Show how F'ed up it is, I did not use it anyway. I put a new one on!