Oops, dropped a bolt

[RayNWanda]

 We didn't have a Paragon in either boat we had, but if there is no oil in the flywheel housing the bolt has to still be in the flywheel housing somewhere. I have a flywheel housing here that had a Paragon on it, and I don't see a path to the oil pan. If it is in the flywheel housing, it could get into the flywheel ring gear. You may have to pull the flywheel to find it.

[S/V Laelia]

I took a quick look at the engine and it looks like I would have to remove the flywheel housing to get to the flywheel. The engine mounts appear to be part of the housing. It seems like I would have to lift the engine enough to clear the engine mounting bolts before I could remove the housing. Is that correct?

I am going to start by looking for a really skinny magnetic probe that can get between the flywheel and the housing. If there is no opening to the oil sump from the flywheel housing, the bolt must be in there somewhere.

[RayNWanda]

Before you go any further, run your magnet around under the flywheel housing. There are 2 drains in the bottom of the flywheel housing in case the engine rear seal/transmission front seal goes out. They measure about 3/8" X 5/8". Is the bolt small enough to have fallen out one of those drains?

[S/V Laelia]

The bolt might fit through a hole that size. The head is just a hair less than 3/8" and it is 1" long.

I looked and felt around the bottom of the flywheel housing and I couldn't find any drains. Dang! I had my hopes up!

[S/V Laelia]

I GOT IT!!!

I work in a place where the company does R&D on advanced mass spectrometers. It involves some pretty exotic materials and engineering. It occurred to me that I should look for help here. I described my problem to one of the engineers and in about 15 minutes he came up with this arrangement.



It is a 12" piece of 1/4" polyethelene tube with a small cylindrical magnet pushed into one end. It took me about 5 minutes of fishing around and figuring out how to push the tubing under and behind the fly wheel. The bolt came out on the first try.

Well - that was a lot of work and angst for such a small piece of hardware. The moral of this story is "Stay focused on what you are doing and work carefully." It saves a lot of work later.

Thanks to all for advice and encouragement.

- Ralph

[POG]

Congratulations Ralph!  From one who is very good at dropping the essential piece at the very moment he thinks "I must not drop this"...

[graemek]

I think you should patten that gadget quick

[RayNWanda]

 Pretty neat! That's one to remember. You can come up with all sorts of things when you need to. I once spent most of a night trying to remove aluminum piston chunks out of an oil pan after I replaced the piston, rod and cyl liner. The pieces were too big to wash out of a 2" drain, and the pan was deeper than I could reach. I scrounged some 1/2" copper tubing, a welding rod and a piece of electrical wire and built a crude set of mechanical fingers. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't easy to use, but it did what I needed it to do.

[captsandy]

A bolt dropped in the flywheel housing can not get into the oil pan they are not connected