Cuz I'm about ready to blow this mother up. This one's all my fault, but enough's enough. I swear, it's one thing after another. I finally get the major parts replaced with what I THINK is going to be a decent combination (gears, converter, etc.), and now I only need to get the motor happy so I can put it all to a real test. I know I have carb/timing issues, so I started with timing. The goal was to get the number one piston to the top of the cylinder so I could verify that the dizzy was pointing to the right place, and if not, then a re-stab would be in order. Easy enough... but leave it to me...

I decided to use the "dowel in the spark plug hole" method, only I didn't have a dowel, so I used an unsharpened pencil. I also used a remote starter switch clipped to the solenoid to bump the motor ever so slightly at a time, but probably should have just put a wrench on the crank bolt, cause as careful as I was trying to be, about the third time that I reached down to check my pencil, after a few very slight bumps on the starter button... well... there wasn't quite as much of it when I pulled it out! Yep, there's now about two inches of brand new pencil laying crossways on top of my number one piston. Could see it for a little while, and could reach in and touch it with a long rod, but never could get it turned so that it would come out. Then it dropped down out of sight, away from the plug hole, so now can't even see it anymore. It wasn't the eraser/metal end, but it doesn't really matter I guess. Haven't bumped the motor anymore, although for a split second, the thought of firing it up and "burning" it out of there did cross my mind, but I thought better of it! No telling how much damage that would do. I just closed the shop doors and haven't been back out there. The truck and I aren't exactly on speaking terms right now!

So... I guess whenever I cool off enough it'll be "off with the head"... or off with MY head, whichever comes first!

Happy 4th of July, guys... And thanks for listening!

 

just a sugestion


try some racing tape on the end of a wire coat hanger to get it back where you can see it. Then try again to lift it out of their. slow deep breath and just stay calm.


or take the coat hanger and bend it into a " L " shape and then very very lightly slide it around the top of the piston to move the pencil up so that you can find it.

 

Thanks. Those sound like some good and smart ideas to try... although the thought of seeing that old truck rolling down the M.Beach pier off into the Atlantic ocean kinda appeals to me too. Hmmm....

 

yeah but then think about how sad you would be after you did that.

 

Wish I could think of something. If you can get it back to where you can see it you might get one of those 3 pronged pickup deals from an auto parts store and pluck that pencil out of there. Once it broke, I think I'd just pull the head. Otherwise you might end up leaving remnants...and it really doesn't take much in there to cause damage. Depending on how your build is, you probably don't have all that much clearance between the valves and the piston. Something small laying in the valve cutout could bend the valve the first rotation. Hmmmmm....I'm thinking some more now....how about using a small hose with suction on it....you might tape a hose to a vacuum cleaner...the suction might pull enough to catch the pencil and let you pull it out....if it worked you could vacuum out the cylinder to make sure no remnants are left. Might be worth a try.

Good Luck!

Tracy

 

i think the 3 prong pick up tool would work if it will fit in the spark plug whole. You could get a shop vac and a smaller hose. use some more of that duct tape (10 million uses and counting) to tape the lager hose to the smaller hose to make sure that you hold it together and then clean it out real good.

I was just thinking that the duct tape on the wire coat rack would pick up andthing loose in the bore

good idea tracy

 

i did the same damn thing with a dowel. i used a shop vac to suck it out.

 

Well, at least I'm not the only one! As far as things I've tried so far - tried a shop vac, with a small hose duct taped into the vac hose, sealed up real good to the hole, but no dice. Also, put some duct tape on the end of a long small rod and could get ahold of pencil, but only to drop it when it came up to the bottom of the spark plug hole. The main problem is that the piece is about two inches long and I can't get it to turn upwards so that it will come back out of the hole. It's sitting in there sideways, perpendicular to the hole. Not much room through that little plug hole.

 

The shop vac will only work if one of the valves is open, and if it's the intake valve, the carb has to be open too...

The "pickup tool" with three or four fingers on it, with some luck, if you could get ahold of the end of the pencil, would work.

Either that, or fill the cylinder with water, the pencil will float to the top and be easy to wrestle out Then use the shop vac to suck the water out.

 

thats the best thing that i have heard all week.

 

Hmmm.... water... cylinder... ???? Even after vaccuming the water out, will the leftover moisture not hurt anything? And what if a valve IS open... will the water not go where it doesn't need to go??

Just asking... don't know much about it. Kinda skurrs me, though!!

 

fill the cylinder with termites, put plug back in, comeback in 30 days...thought at this point a little humor may do you good...lol a lesson on using dowels, just put you finger over the hole till you can feel the compression.... sorry about your problem, I'll put my thinking cap on

 

I think if you use compressed air to help dry it out you should not have any kind of problem.


I would try to put some kind of oil in that thing just to try to keep that bore from rusting. although i have been told that WD40 is usely when it comes to that keep something from rusting i just think back to what WD40 stands for

"WD-40 literally stands for Water Displacement, 40th attempt. That's the name straight out of the lab book used by the chemist who developed WD-40 back in 1953. The chemist, Norm Larsen, was attempting to concoct a formula to prevent corrosion—a task which is done by displacing water. Norm's persistence paid off when he perfected the formula on his 40th try. Please see Our History for more information."

from the FAQ section on the WD40 website

I think it could work

 

I agree those are some good ideas. Sorry to hear of your situation. Never a fun thing but hope you can fish it out somehow. If my ex was around I could send her there to scare it out!
G.

 

If you do the water thing, take off the valve cover and remove the rocker shaft (the right way)... that way the valves are closed.

HOWEVER! even easier. The spark plug hole is lower then either intake or exhaust valve, so pouring water in the plug hole, you can't fill the intake - and your exhaust could use a steam cleaning anyway, right?

Good idea about the WD40, give it a shot around the inside of the cylinder before putting water in there.

And after you get out the pencil and are thanking your maker, leave out the spark plug, rotate motor by hand slowly to make sure nothing bad has been left in there, and then crank the motor over with the starter - believe me, the water will go flying right out the spark plug hole... and change the oil, because some water can (will?) get past the ring end-gaps.

(Funny story: I had the nose off my highboy with my 11:1 390 in it, and we had a hurricane (or remnants) pass through and it poured like mad for 24 hours right down the hole in the top of the air cleaner, down the intake into all the open intake valves. Knew it got waterlogged, removed all the plugs and cranked - that thing without the fenders or hood on it spit all over the neighbor's house, my house, my other cars that were parked right next to the highboy, you get the idea ...)