I've got a bad case of Mod-itis!

[cv_rider]

We all know what the "-itis" suffix means when applied to a disease: inflamation of the previously mentioned condition. As in: appedicitis (inflamation of the appendix) and arthritis (inflamation of the arth...:eyebrow. Well, I have a burning case of mod-itis, inflamation of the mod.

My initial mod plan was minor, and I intended it to take about 15 minutes. Add a wire from the positive and ground of the battery and bring it into the fairing so I could power stuff from it. I was using a little screwdriver bit to feed battery's ground bolt into the nut when I dropped the bit into the engine! At that point, my little mod became painfully inflamed into a full-blown throbbing PITA.

Now I've got a little bit of metal somewhere in the engine area. It would probably rattle loose, but it might get jammed in somewhere and do god knows what. To get a better view, I removed the battery, but the battery box still blocks the view. I poked around with a little mirror and did find it, resting inside the curvature of the frame next to the battery box. I can't reach it. Next step is to remove the dreaded airbox, and hopefully the battery box after that. I think with the battery box out, I can reach the bit.

This will be the most extensive modding I've ever done, all to retrieve a drill bit. And it all started so innocently.

 

[OZXJR]

LMAO,I feel your pain,I have a screw stuck down the front of my fairing.I can hear it rattling , but do you think I can find the damn thing !

 

[Moses195]

Magnet on a stick?

 

[blitzcraig]

i think i did the same thing. i dropped the bolt to the negative terminal down into, well, somewhere down there. hard to explain. i was even telling myself, careful craig, you are going to drop that thing. no i won't, i said back. and bam, down it goes. if it's where mine went, get down low and look up, instead of reaching down to get it. i was able to move some rubber around down there and nab it with tweezers. or if you say you can see it, get some gum and put it on the end of a stick! :cheer:

 

[nimzotech]

ElectroMagnetism

Welcome to the club. My loose screw in the fairing almost cost me my sanity.
Solution was a home-made electro magnet. I used a 9V battery and built something similar to the one pictured below.

It got that rattling sucker out!:Flash:

 

[cv_rider]

or if you say you can see it, get some gum and put it on the end of a stick! :cheer:

Gum on the end of a stick! That could work! I just picked up this "retriever" thing at a car parts store - a flexible tube with grabbers at the end (maybe also used for colon surgery?). I may be able to directly grab it with the grabbers, or hold a magnet in it. Or attach gum to it! Maybe I'll be able to avoid removing the air box after all.

 

[stryken]

Magnet on a stick?

No ...


Jalapeno on a Stick :rof:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8eFRaZvKxA"]YouTube - Jeff Dunham-Peanut and Jalapeno on a Stick[/ame]




Sorry to hijack the thread but I couldn't resist. Now returning thread to its previous owner...

 

[blitzcraig]

Gum on the end of a stick! That could work! I just picked up this "retriever" thing at a car parts store - a flexible tube with grabbers at the end (maybe also used for colon surgery?). I may be able to directly grab it with the grabbers, or hold a magnet in it. Or attach gum to it! Maybe I'll be able to avoid removing the air box after all.

yeah, chew on it for a little bit, then roll it around you know until it gets extra dried out and sticky, and noodle that sucker down there. just don't get the gum stuck in there too :squid:

 

[FZ1inNH]

Come on guys! You're not telling him the EASY way to do this? Don't you feel like your teasing him, cheating him? The simplest way to get it out is pick up the bike, tip it upside down over your head and SHAKE IT! Please wear safety glasses and DON'T do this with your mouth open or you'll be sifting poop for a few days to get the bit out. Well, you could just drag a magnet over the poop each time though.... :thumbup:

 

[DefyInertia]

Get one of those extendable magnet stick things...they are $5 at the hardware store...one of the must have tools.

You been riding much? The roads are starting to get covered in debri.

 

[paulinus]

Hehe, you guys are cracking me up! I have had a few dropped screws and stuff which were a PITA, but one time in particular comes to mind.

I was at the gas station at night and happened to drop my key in a way where it disappeared into the engine compartment. Or so I feared...the lighting was poor at the station and it wasn't on the ground. I finally had to get down on a knee and look up as suggested earlier in the thread. It got caught on the radiator. Whew!

 

[cv_rider]

I got that little F'er!

What a saga to retrieve that screwdriver bit from the nether regions of the chassis, however. I found a useful flexible grabber tool for $5 at an auto parts store. I put a magnet in the grabber, and was able to pull the bit close to a place I could grab it. But I couldn't get my fingers around it. It was hard to use the grabber, too, as using it obscured the view. So I just put the grabber in the general vicinity of the bit, and tried to get lucky by opening and closing the jaws. Thought if I could do that, I wouldn't have to remove the airbox.

Well, I didn't get lucky. Quite the opposite. I ended up knocking the bit off its perch, and I heard several metal clinks as it bounced off things and dropped deeper into the chassis. Crap!

Now I was resigned to removing the airbox, which turned out to be much easier than I feared (we'll see about getting it back on, though). Unfortunately, even with the much expanded view without the airbox, I still couldn't see the bit. I poked around in the chassis for about two hours, using mirrors, looking from various angles, pushing the grabber into places to see if I could feel the bit moving under the grabber head. Nothing. I went to bed last night nearly panicking. Airbox removal was about as far as I was prepared to disassemble, and I decided not to ride with random pieces of metal in the engine (what it it caused the throttle to jam open?). I didn't have any more ideas about how I could find that thing.

Back at it at lunch today, helpful with better light. I got a thick gauge wire and curved it into shapes that would allow me to probe into areas I couldn't see or get my fingers or grabber into. Finally, I felt something move behind a cable run. And there that little thing was! I teased it out with the wire, and retrieved it!

Assuming my assembly goes reasonably smooth, my mod of adding a +12V and ground lead to the battery is going to end up taking about six hours, and decent amount of extra gray hair.

 

[CHEMIKER]

The simplest way to get it out is pick up the bike, tip it upside down over your head and SHAKE IT!

... says the guy who can actually do this because he has a motorcycle lift in his garage ...

 

[FZ1inNH]

... says the guy who can actually do this because he has a motorcycle lift in his garage ...

Awwwwwwwwww... Travis! You gave away my secret! :Flash: :rockon: