I wonder where my nuts have gone

[Keeping Up]

Oh dear the lid of my air filter fell off yesterday. Not a big problem in itself - except that it was held in place by a couple of 10mm nuts, and now I can't find them. I've been searching the bilge under the engine and there's no sign of them, but it's not easy searching there so I'm hoping I've missed them.

 

Why am I worried? It's only a couple of small nuts, after all. The trouble is, without the lid on the filter, anything could fall into the air inlet - and there has to be a small chance that at least one of the nuts could have worked loose and been sitting on the lid so that when the lid fell off the nut got tipped into the manifold.

 

Ho hum. The chance is probably small enough that I needn't worry about it compared with the hassle of dismantling everything so as to be certain. Or is it?

[jake_crew]

Attach a magnet to a flexible rod and poke down the inlet manifold and fish around, just in case.

[Grace and Favour]

Attach a magnet to a flexible rod and poke down the inlet manifold and fish around, just in case.

 

and use the magnet to search in the bilge, too!

[Keeping Up]

and use the magnet to search in the bilge, too!

I tried that - it stuck to the bottom of the boat every time.

 

Attach a magnet to a flexible rod and poke down the inlet manifold and fish around, just in case.

That's a very good idea, thank you, I think I'll do that.

[Nightwatch]

Unless of course they are copper nuts.

 

Martyn

[cheshire~rose]

has there been a squirrel in there?

you could always just pop the cylinder head off to check properly - I remember an occasion when an offending misplaced nut worked it's was out of a V8 engine - via the cast alloy side of the block

 

it didn't half make a clatter when it escaped!

[Grace and Favour]

I tried that - it stuck to the bottom of the boat every time.

 

 

 

 

take your wooden pole and firmly attach a small castor/wheel to the bottom

Secure one or two magnets near the base of the pole - (so they cannot touch the baseplate)

wheel about until magnets found, or desperation overtakes - and you strip the head down

[paddy r]

old tea towel push round under the engine with a stick,when you find them chuck wife's tea towel in bin.

[Keeping Up]

Dammit I realised today, they're stainless steel nuts so the magnet won't find them. Took a chance and ran the engine again, no problems so far (as the man said when passing the first floor after he jumped off the roof of the skyscraper).

 

I'm now waiting for the engine to cool down again before accidentally picking up a couple of tea towels as I casually saunter through the kitchen.

[RLWP]

Dammit I realised today, they're stainless steel nuts so the magnet won't find them. Took a chance and ran the engine again, no problems so far (as the man said when passing the first floor after he jumped off the roof of the skyscraper).

 

I'm now waiting for the engine to cool down again before accidentally picking up a couple of tea towels as I casually saunter through the kitchen.

 

Of course, you could pick up a bar towel as you casually saunter into a pub...

 

Richard

[Guest]

Numpty edit because I didn't read whole thread before responding....

Edited September 2, 2010 by MJG

[Keeping Up]

Well I now have one less nut unaccounted for - and one less teacloth in the kitchen (but don't tell Pingu)

[sociable_hermit]

It doesn't do for a gentleman to lose control of his nuts, particularly in a confined space.

[Graham Bowers]

Dammit I realised today, they're stainless steel nuts so the magnet won't find them. Took a chance and ran the engine again, no problems so far (as the man said when passing the first floor after he jumped off the roof of the skyscraper).

 

I'm now waiting for the engine to cool down again before accidentally picking up a couple of tea towels as I casually saunter through the kitchen.

Some grades of stainless are magnetic. Have you tried a magnet on the one you have found?

Graham

[Justme]

You could have used a vacuum cleaner to suck it out of the bilge / engine.

[Keeping Up]

Some grades of stainless are magnetic. Have you tried a magnet on the one you have found?

Graham

That's a good point, and well worth a try.

 

You could have used a vacuum cleaner to suck it out of the bilge / engine.

The vacuum cleaner on the boat doesn't have an extension hose but now I've got back to the house again I can use the other one which does. Hadn't thought of trying it down the air inlet, I'll do that too.

 

At least now we've got home I don't have to risk running the engine until after I've found the other nut; it's got to be somewhere.

[Québec]

You could have used a vacuum cleaner to suck it out of the bilge / engine.

Handy Hint #231:

Cover nozzle of vacuum cleaner with old pair of tights (or some other fine netting). Retrieves item e.g. lost earring.... or 10mm nut, without having to fish through the contents of the bag or bagless container.

[FORTUNATA]

You'll need to keep cleaning the magnet so you can eee what's stuck to it. It'll come out of the bilge pretty black but whatever is there will stick to it.

 

I tried that - it stuck to the bottom of the boat every time.

 

 

That's a very good idea, thank you, I think I'll do that.

[RLWP]

You'll need to keep cleaning the magnet so you can eee what's stuck to it. It'll come out of the bilge pretty black but whatever is there will stick to it.

 

Top tip on cleaning magnets - use sticky tape. Will even work on samarium-cobalt and neodymium-iron-boron magnets

 

And keep credit cards away from them

 

Richard

[Grace and Favour]

Top tip on cleaning magnets - use sticky tape. Will even work on samarium-cobalt and neodymium-iron-boron magnets

 

And keep credit cards away from them

 

Richard

 

In fact - keep credit cards away from anything to do with boats . . . . .

[WotEver]

In fact - keep credit cards away from anything to do with boats . . . . .

We have a handful of cards and I said of one "Let's keep this one just for boat purchases".

 

Guess which card's at its limit?

 

Tony

[mayalld]

You could have used a vacuum cleaner to suck it out of the bilge / engine.

 

Is he not already treading a dangerous path, having purloined a tea towel?

 

And you suggest taking the best hoover into the engine space.

 

I shudder to think of the consequences

[noff]

it has all gone rather quiet ..............

[Keeping Up]

I'm taking our VAX down to the boat this afternoon so I'll post an update later ...

[Québec]

I'm taking our VAX down to the boat this afternoon so I'll post an update later ...

Don't forget the tights!