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Healey swallowed my sockets

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nevets

nevets

Jedi Knight
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I foolishly lost 2 sockets while working on the carbs, I think they fell into the open end of a frame member that lies just beneath the carbs. I did not think to stuff a rag into the opening to prevent this sort of think happening. Any tips on how to possibly retrieve the lost tools? Is there a secret trap door somewhere?

Thanks
 
Never give up! It is a matter of principle for me. I have gone as far as droppng something else in the same area where I was working to see if I could tell where a small part went. It comes from being in aviation where a missing tool or small part can end up causing expensive or deadly problems. Use telescoping magnets, balled up tape on the end of a flexible wand, coat hangars bent in impossible shapes, hooks made from .032" stainless wire, compressed air blasts to move a lost object you can't see to a place where you can (sometimes I've heard it move after a blast and voila!). I don't do it often, but if I find myself doing a job where I have a bad memory of dropping something, I'll tie a string to it. It has saved me much effort on more than one occasion. I have a collection of small parts that others have lost over the years. Most of the items are washers, nuts, and cotter pins.
 
roscoe said:
I have a collection of small parts that others have lost over the years. Most of the items are washers, nuts, and cotter pins.
Click to expand...

Aha, you've got my lost washers, nuts and cotter pins. No wonder I could not find them. Do you have my lost socks too?

I too have found dropped items in those places, belonging to previous mechanics.
Guilty as charged am I, that I too have dropped nuts, bolts, washers, cotter pins, wrenches, sockets, screwdrivers into those places. As soon as you see it go into the area, you listen for the multiple...cling, clang, thunk noise. You look under the car, hoping to see it on the garage floor. Nine out of ten, it's not.

I've had the best luck with the magnet on the end of the telescoping shaft.
 
:savewave:
I've had the best luck with the magnet on the end of the telescoping shaft.---Me too---Keoke-- :thumbsup:
 
Funny thing happened to me once. I was at a service (gas) station and had added some oil. I rather carelessly spun the oil filler cap, the thread didn't start and the cap fell off the top of the motor. Do you think I could find it? I spent ages looking under the car and all over the forecourt but eventually gave up and rigged up a temporary cap. Several weeks later I dropped a spanner which fell into the bottom of the mudguard (fender).
Lying on the ground, I groped around trying to retrieve the spanner only to find the missing cap!! It must have bounced off the concrete floor of the service station and landed back in the car.
 
When I got down to the frame and had a few friends help me flip it over, I had two wrenches fallout from previous owners / restorers - What a bonus!
 
I use rubber caps/plugs that insert into the two cavities and effectively seal the "black holes" once and for all.
Patrick
 
Thanks everyone for the suggestions. It's reassuring to know that others have had similar ocurances, still I feel a little Homer Simpsonish for letting it happen twice.
 
Years ago at a swap met I found a claw shaped instrument that opens and closes with a plunger type arrangement. When I saw it I knew just the right place to go fishing.

Used it on several Healeys...always amazed on what I found down "THE HOLE"
 
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