Help!

I took off the hood struts tonight on my 348 because they were worn and I am replacing them. Unfortunately I dropped one of the nuts and you guess what I didnt hear. I spent the next couple of hours looking for the runaway nut. Even jacked the car up and got under it but no luck. Can I still start the car? Will there be tragedy and crying? Will it find its own way out? Any suggestions?

 

Jack the car up and secure with at least two jackstands. Insure that you have the car in gear and blocks around one front wheel.

Take your phillips screwdriver (preferably electric) and a socket wrench/set underneath with you. Slide back until you are facing up at the most forward part of the engine (except, you can't yet see it). Now remove the black cover underarmor.

Your screw will probably fall right out. If not, once the engine has cooled from your last drive, feel around up there with your hand for it.

If you still don't have any luck, remove the rear wheels and inner fender guards; attempt to find the screw from the sides.

If no luck still, then you are going to need to remove your timing belt covers and caps (low odds). You may even have to blow compressed air in around your timing belt (pretty much as a last resort).

The odds are that it won't be a problem...but that's the wrong place to "not know" where your stray nut/bolt went.

Find it.

 

Ok thanks, I will do it tomorrow and follow-up.
Thanks for the help!

 

What you do is drop another nut in the same place and observe. Maybe drop a kernel of corn, safer. Use a magnet and probe. Use the force Luke!

 

There was a thread on this recently you might want to search for it.
I did the same thing & found the nut by laying underneath- the nut was resting on a cover panel, I loosened one side & the nut rolled out.

Good luck & happy hunting

Mike

 

You Ferrari guys over-engineer everything! Turn the car upside down and shake vigorously.

 

I did the same thing about a month ago. Dropped the first nut when changing out the lifts for the rear decklid. Let me know how it turns out, I am driving with a spare nut rolling around somewhere. I looked for about an hour before just giving up and getting a new nut. I swear it looks like the nut could only fall in two locations, and I did not find it in either one.
BT

 

Jacked the car up with two floor jacks. Crawled under, took off the armour plating and there it was. It had a smile on its little nut face as if to say "what took you so long". Little bastard! Here are some pics of exactly where it was found for reference purposes...well...really because I had the car on jack stands and had nothing left to do. Also, If you dont have one these little re-charable drivers from Skill, then you need to get one. They are tiny and have gobs of torque. Expensive, (40 bucks at HD) but worth every penny especially if you are planning on crawling around under your car.
Thanks for the assistance from the brotherhood!
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Nicely done!

 

Doesn't this just drive you "nuts"!

 

Good job

I didn't have the luxury of a jack on my quest

I'm sure it was a stressful day awaiting the hunt, especially after just paying for those belts