Having a similar problem at the race track just before grid time I used a
glob of wheel bearing grease on the screwdriver to get the devil out.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Taylor" <tarch@bellsouth.net>
To: <fot@autox.team.net>
Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 12:05 PM
Subject: [Fot] An errant washer
> My drive-to-work, everyday car is a disreputably kept 1971 Porsche 911 T
> showing 329,000 miles on the odometer. The paint scheme is determined by a
> collection of junkyard replacements garnered by the 30+ years of utility
> driving. The rust is honestly earned and the myriad colors determined by
> natural selection.
>
>
>
> Mechanically the car is kept to reasonably high standards. Through the
> years
> the running gear has gradually been transformed into something of a sub-
> "S"
> model.
>
>
>
> Last week I spent an evening converting the air cleaners on the Weber's to
> a
> later design. This is a flat-six engine with a 3 barrel down-draft
> carburetor on each side. In the course of that operation a small washer
> fell down one of the throats of the left-hand carburetor. The throttle was
> closed so it didn't fall all the way through. After trying to rescue the
> washer with one of those magnets on a slide-shaft, I gave up. The magnet
> head couldn't get past the flow dividers that direct the intake swirl.
> There
> was nothing to do but pull the carburetor off and turn it upside down and
> shake the washer out.
>
>
>
> However whilst unclipping the throttle linkage, I accidentally opened the
> butterfly and, Opps, the washer dropped through the intake manifold. With
> the carb out of the way I could barely see the edge of the washer where it
> had lodged half way into the open intake valve. With the first touch of
> the
> magnet-on-a-stick inside the head, the little bugger fell into the
> combustion chamber! This had definitely gotten out of hand. Years ago I
> learned in a casino, if your luck is running sour, leave the table. So I
> closed the shop for the night.
>
>
>
> The next day I told my friend, Neil Estes, about my plight. His response
> was, "Don't worry about it, I'll get it out." In light of my anxiety, his
> cockiness was somewhat offensive. In any event he turned up at my shop
> that
> evening with a stainless steel wire epoxied to a small magnet out of one
> of
> those cheap little screwdrivers with a shirt pocket clip. In less than 90
> seconds, at the cost of a steak dinner, he fished the errant washer out of
> the combustion chamber! It and the magnet now hang proudly in my shop.
>
>
>
> There's an old saw, "smart's good, luck's better." But better yet is a
> smart, lucky friend.
>
>
>
>
>
> Richard L. Taylor
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