Help please... dropped a socket while working on motor...sigh

Well,

Unconventional approach, YES; absolutely. Does it work? Yep! Every time I have used it (in some situations you cannot but those will be obvious).

IF you can, drop another socket. Yep, you read that right. Drop another one in the exact same spot you think you lost the first. ONLY THIS TIME, watch to see and hear where it goes.

The first time you were not expecting the event so it caught you by surprise and you did not have time to react (get your senses refocused). This time you'll have them focused on following the falling socket. You might be very surprised the direction it takes you.

I have tried this approach when nothing else worked and when it made sense to try, and it has been amazing how often the event repeats itself, sometimes exactly, and you can find the original item that "took a hike on you." Use the same size, or nearly so, socket for the test and "Bombs Away!"

Something to try, if all else fails.

You just got to find and retrieve the original miscreant socket BEFORE you even start the car.

Just got done reading Artvonne's post directly above AFTER I posted this ..... GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE !!!!!!

 

This happened to me while working on a Porsche of mine. Dropped a 13mm socket. Heard a bounce and some jiggling and no more socket. Looked and looked and looked. Even got my wife to look. She is very good at finding things I lose. No luck. Even with car on lift and mirrors, I could not find it. &%%#$$#**&^!!!!

My solution was to take another 13mm socket and attach some fishing line to it - monofilament. After about the nineth or tenth drop I heard the same sound. It had gotten into the nearby hollow engine gusset. The hole was barely large enough for the socket to fit but it did. Gusset was aluminum so I was able to fish it out with a magnet attached to a line.

 

Probably rolled under the workbench, sometimes they do not fall and stay were you think they would.

 

First thing is to go buy a new 10MM socket. Then when you don't need the one that dropped it will show up pretty easily.
I speak from experience.
BT

 

Earlier this summer I was working on my rototiller fuse line. I lost the fuse connection & looked all over my driveway.. didn't find it until about a month later, it was about 1 foot away from where we were working.. Funny think was since my driveway has a slight slope we looked in the area the part was suspected of 'rolling'...I found it 'up' from where we were.
Must have 'kicked' it?

 

ROTFLMAO-- So easy; so true.

 

Try fishing around with a magnet attached to the end of a coathanger or wire.

I used that approach one time when I dropped a socket into a sprinkler system hose, and it ended up about 5' into the hose under the ground. You may be able to actually "hear" the socket attach itself to the magnet.

 

Hey look! I found it!.......................Surprising what you find in there...........

Just trying to put a little levity on the situation............
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Oh please stop. My tummy hurts from laughing so hard ..........................................

We have all bben there. Keep looking, you will find it, like I found a new spark plug (NEVER FIRED) in my suspension and a corn cob(?) in my spare tire bay under the plastic upper shroud (308). Those things should have NEVER been here.

Lazy people get them and left them there.

 

If you don't find it you might try pulling the plugs and rotating the the crank manuallv. maybe it will fall out or make a noise if it's caught on anything. At least you won't be subjecting it to the force of the starter or a running motor. Might want to have another person looking and listening when you try this. PB

 

Also tap carefully with a rubber mallet on exhaust etc from underneath. You'll hear the socket rattle around if you hit the right spot if it's sitting on top of a couple exhaust tubes etc.

 

Was once just finishing rebuilding a tractor motor, and a little nut escaped a hand and dropped down an oilway. Damned if we could find it even with wires and magnets and all. After about an hour of "fishing" for the nut, we reluctantly decided we just had to strip it all right down again. Many hours down the drain... Oh, well... peace of mind in the end.