Rookie mistake and lucky save

[Hawaii-Mike]

This morning I began mounting intake manifolds and reeds on the '77 RD400. The bolts for the reeds are stainless. I added anti-seize to a bolt and was preparing to thread it into a hole to get the anti-seize in it.  Instead, I dropped the bolt (and its washer, I think) down the hole. The piston was near TDC so the bolt and washer went down in the crankcase.  #$%*!

I pulled the cylinder and found the bolt lying at the top of the crankcase. That was easy. Where was the washer? I couldn't see it and could not get it with a magnetic rod because stainless items are not magnetic.

Neighbor came over and we turned the bike upside down onto towels and cushions. I sprayed brake cleaner, turned the crank many times, sprayed more brake cleaner and no luck. Then I decided to spray water from a hose to try and blast it out. Still no luck as far as I could tell.  I used a torch to heat the crank and dry out the water.  More brake fluid, nothing. 

Did this mean I have to split the engine?  My neighbor came over and we put the bike right side up.  I began picking up the cushions and towels and found the washer!  At what point it came out, I don't know.  I'm not 100% positive that it fell into the crankcase but it seems like the most likely place, since the bolt went into the crankcase.

Now I'm lubricating the crank with 2 stroke oil.  I will install the reeds and intake manifold on the cylinder BEFORE the cylinder goes back on the engine.

Lucky me.  Remember to block the intake ports and other points of entry when you're working on the engine to avoid this type of issue.

[RDryan]

Congratulations. I wouldn't think of it to flush it out with water. I guess a certain last resort before taking it apart. Is it a good idea to anti seize those bolts? I know it can't hurt but I guess I just wonder if there was ever a problem with them getting stuck?I don't remember doing mine, LOL. 

[rodneya]

Congratulations. I wouldn't think of it to flush it out with water. I guess a certain last resort before taking it apart. Is it a good idea to anti seize those bolts? I know it can't hurt but I guess I just wonder if there was ever a problem with them getting stuck?I don't remember doing mine, LOL.

Stainless and aluminum dont get along very well, so anti seize helps to be able to get them out again.

In my experience, anything that I drop that has any slight 0.001% chance of going somwhere that will cause major damage, will.

[m in sc]

use a shop vac next time, reduce it down to a rubber vacuum line size that will fit in there. been there! also a bore scope is a good investment. glad you got it sorted.

[sav0r]

A bit of compressed air combined with a shop vac will usually do the trick fairly swiftly. You blow on one side and suck on the other and usually whatever you are chasing comes right now. One of the race car mechanics I worked with would clean his tank vac out fairly well before hand, that way you can look in the tank to see if you got what you are searching for. I always thought that was a pretty smart overall solution for these types of predicaments. In fact we went through this very same issues with our GT750 a year ago when we lost a bolt. We solved it using this very method. There is no turning the race car over, that would have been nice though.

[Frank B]

I've been there too! Last year, the day before leaving for deals gap! Thankfully the Chinese stainless washer wasn't proper stainless and a magnet got it..

[pidjones]

We would tape a 1/4" plastic hose to a vacuum cleaner to attract and drag parts out of particle accelerators.

[m in sc]

We would tape a 1/4" plastic hose to a vacuum cleaner to attract and drag parts out of particle accelerators.

thats kinda what i was driving at. it works well.


we dropped a stainless carb bowl screw down an intake of a 66 250 ducati scrambler on time. didn't know it... till it was running terrible. took carb off, and there it was between the intake valve and valve seat on the intake side of the runner. we got it fished out w a vacuum cleaner but man that was CLOSE.   worst part was it technically had to fall UP to get in there. no idea how it got in there. If i didn't have a witness to this, I wouldn't even repeat this story. shit happens!

[Hawaii-Mike]

Oh yeah that was a very lucky save!