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Secret world of lost nuts and washers

mojobaby

mojobaby

Enthusiast
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I was wondering what happens to those little nuts and washers that we drop from time to time. They seem to drop and mysteriously disappear into a secret world where no one can find them.
Except I always make a point of finding them just in case they cause further damage

It happened to me today and at first I searched underneath my car, hoping that the nut had fallen all the way through, but it hadn't.
Then I prodded around with a telescopic magnet and caused an explosion of sparks when I short circuited the starter:doh:.

Even after using a bright lamp and bending my hands and arms into ridiculous angles to reach into hidden corners, I still could not find the nut.

So now I've removed the air filter, the carburetor, the short front section of the exhaust and have started removing the manifold. This can only come out after the steering column has been loosened and shifted to one side.

So hopefully tomorrow I'll find out where that little nut has been hiding. It's been such a wasted day:(
 
mojobaby said:
I was wondering what happens to those little nuts and washers that we drop from time to time. They seem to drop and mysteriously disappear into a secret world where no one can find them.
Except I always make a point of finding them just in case they cause further damage

It happened to me today and at first I searched underneath my car, hoping that the nut had fallen all the way through, but it hadn't.
Then I prodded around with a telescopic magnet and caused an explosion of sparks when I short circuited the starter:doh:.

Even after using a bright lamp and bending my hands and arms into ridiculous angles to reach into hidden corners, I still could not find the nut.

So now I've removed the air filter, the carburetor, the short front section of the exhaust and have started removing the manifold. This can only come out after the steering column has been loosened and shifted to one side.

So hopefully tomorrow I'll find out where that little nut has been hiding. It's been such a wasted day:(
Click to expand...

We all know that it is the garage fairies that take them and they hide them away until you go and fit a shiny new one, then the place them in clear sight, as if to make a point of how silly you were not to have seen them straight away. Damned clever these garage fairies
 
So true!
Happened twice to me so far, find that walking away and having a coffee before resuming the manic search helps, the ‘fairies’ doing their stuff while I increase my caffine intake, little beggars seem to love hiding them under the steering rack gaiters on mine, if they don’t roll them onto the plate under the gearbox just so they can see some blood from skinned knuckles....
 
... maybe its not fairies at all, but an undiagnosed affliction that mechanics sometimes suffer from called ‘bolt eye’, similar to welders ‘arc eye’ , cured by a short rest, or speedily by the ‘private health care’ method of buying a replacement...
 
Thanks everyone, I thought it was just ME! Especially the stage where blood is spilled. Such a consolation to discover it's pandemic. Don't fight it lads .... It's super-natural.
My solution was to refrain from D.I.Y. vehicle repairs "sine die". (Cowardice in the face of the enemy). Additionally, associated with old-age, EVERY TIME that I forced my hand down between the inter-cooler duct and the e.g.r valve, I suffered the most unsightly bruising to the back of my hand.
Take care lads (and lassies)
Neil. 1948. 75mg asprin/day.20170719_180801.jpg
 
Spot on jjad!
 
The joy of the Renault 4 no inter cooler duct or egr valve to snag your hands on. The joy of still being able to tinker and fix yourself like we could in the 70's before an electronics degree became necessary before opening the bonnet on new cars.
 
Mojo has a point and beside the garage fairies (we all have experience with them) most of all for myself I am a true believer in Murphy's laws such as the law of selective gravity: A falling object will always land where it can do the most damage.
Other examples in relation to our R4 restoring/maintanance hobby:
- If your looking for more than one thing, you'll find the most important one last.
- If your looking for n parts, you'll find n-1.
- No matter how long or how hard you shop for an item, after you've bought it, it will be on sale somewhere cheaper.
- Anything you try to fix will take longer and cost you more than you thought.
- If you fool around with a thing for very long you will screw it up.
- If it jams - force it. If it breaks, it needed replacing anyway.

etcetera etcetera...
 
Must have happened to the previous owner of my R4. Bought it in January and it had a normal nut holding the air filter cover in place. No big deal as it did the job. Tacklling a bit of surface rust in the bowels of the engine bay I came across the original wing nut. So the garage fairies obviously transfer with the car when ownership changes. Good to know I have them with me whenever I tackle the simplest of jobs.
 
Also-as it is usually poor light in the garage, and it is silly to look for it in the dark
you might be better off looking for it in the next room where there's ample light -No??
 
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reidalpine said:
Also-as it it usually poor light in the garage, and it is silly to look for it in the dark
you might be better off looking for it in the next room where there's ample light -No??
Click to expand...
works for me, you have as much chance of finding it as you did looking in the dark
 
Well Mojo, sometimes even the Renault factory drops screws, bolts, nuts and washers while assembling the R4.
When I started seperating the body from chassis it kept hanging on 1 spot. The factory lost a screw and instead of searching for it they spotwelded that spot to the chassis. Red circle the lost screw covered in the famous R4 bitumen the green circles the spotwelds.

Boutje en puntlassen.jpg
 
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Must have been a car produced late on a Friday afternoon, JdeW:laughing:

So, I found the little b------d!! Tucked away behind the starter.

This little episode was made a lot more bearable by some of the very funny comments that it received. Great senses of humour:) Thank you!!

2019-03-05 18.51.30 copy.jpg
 
Good that you found that little piece Mojo.
That's better then not finding it and wondering where the rolling rattling tickeling noise comes from every time when you accelerate or apply the brakes :D
 
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