97 Chevy c1500 4.3 v6 - Remove Alternator Bracket

[454cid]

...There's a gap between the water pump and timing chain cover. I dropped the EGR gasket and 1 bolt when I was replacing it once. Had to get new.

Oh, so you're carrying a spare

I found a wrench I didn't know I had dropped once. It was quite some time ago..... I think I found it when I was swapping radiators, it was down near where the transmission coolant lines go into the radiator.

Normally, I'm able to retrieve dropped tools and parts. I start very carefully looking to see where it went, and then very carefully retrieve it, so I don't bump it, or drop it again and make it even worse.

 

[broughtcornet31]

Oh, so you're carrying a spare

I found a wrench I didn't know I had dropped once. It was quite some time ago..... I think I found it when I was swapping radiators, it was down near where the transmission coolant lines go into the radiator.

Normally, I'm able to retrieve dropped tools and parts. I start very carefully looking to see where it went, and then very carefully retrieve it, so I don't bump it, or drop it again and make it even worse.

Unfortunately it's contacting one of the pulleys and I can't see it. It's making a pinging noise.

 

[Donald Mitchell]

This happens to me and I never see it again. Lost a brass nut off my cut off switch and herd it hit the frame but never found it. Alien part abduction? Maybe.

 

[454cid]

This happens to me and I never see it again. Lost a brass nut off my cut off switch and herd it hit the frame but never found it. Alien part abduction? Maybe.

There's ledges where stuff will catch..... being non-magnetic would make it more difficult to retrieve.

I had a job where I had a work bench in a poorly lit warehouse, and it had an industrial carpet runner on the floor. I would drop screws and springs, and I'd try to follow them down with my eyes as they fell, so I could pick them up. Approximately a foot off the floor, they'd disappear into a different dimension.

 

[1998_K1500_Sub]

This happens to me and I never see it again. Lost a brass nut off my cut off switch and herd it hit the frame but never found it. Alien part abduction? Maybe.

I had my jeans cuffed once, and was working on my '74 Grand Am (the year, probably 1980). I dropped a fastener "on the ground"... so I thought. I searched for-EV-er, could NOT find it until... wait, could it be... YES, I found it lodged in the cuff of one pant leg.

Occasionally, if I drop something and can't determine where it went, I'll intentionally drop another "thing" just like it (classic example: sockets), from the same position, and then watch for where IT goes... maybe do this a few times, to get perspective on whether "bounce", "roll" or other factors need to be considered in order to find the original, lost item.

I dropped a tap one time... I had the intake off of my L31 Sub and was clearing the blind holes in the heads before re-installing the intake. So, I dropped the tap into the open engine and it fell in more or less a straight path right into the distributor hole, and clanked a few times on its way down into the oil pan. At least I knew where it went. Retrieving it killed the better part of a day.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Ugh. Flightline equipment. If you drop hardware or a tool, you don't stop searching until you find it - if it gets sucked into a jet intake you can trash a $3 million engine. I'm doing Air Force Reserve duty this week, and this afternoon I dropped a nut off a bracket and it bounced down through the generator, but fortunately fell right on top of the fuel tank where it was visible. Big sigh of relief!

 

[1998_K1500_Sub]

Ugh. Flightline equipment. If you drop hardware or a tool, you don't stop searching until you find it -

I'm reminded of the Titan II missile that exploded in the silo after maintenance personnel dropped a socket... it was late 1980.

1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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[HotWheelsBurban]

Unfortunately it's contacting one of the pulleys and I can't see it. It's making a pinging noise.

Possibly caught behind the pulley and what it drives? I had a nut get inside the front brake rotor on a truck once; could hear the rattle of it rolling around but couldn't find it till I pulled the wheel and rotor off.