Dropped screw - major problem?

Hi all, first time posting. Great site though. Sorry in advance if this seems dumb.

Anyway, I was replacing my battery after a slow charge on my 05, and was trying to put the connectors back on the battery. So as I was attaching the first one, my hand slipped and I dropped the screw somewhere in that area. I've attached a picture of the area I think it fell, if that helps any (the screw in the picture is a replacement).

I poked around a bit inside there and couldn't find it. I also tried shaking the bike a bit back and forth and feeling around there to see if the screw falls out, but with no luck.

My question is this: if in the worst case scenario I can't recover the screw, are there any moving parts in the area that I could damage? Or is it just something I can ride around with and let it fall out on its own? I've never had this happen to me before so I honestly don't know the answer, and a quick Google search and a search of this site didn't turn up anything.

Thanks.

Shouldn't think so, my bike hasn't suffered from it

The same thing happened to me when I was doing my headlight mod. I had to actually lay under the bike and look up from the bottom to spot the screw. Even then I could barely see it and still couldn't reach it. Tried to shake it but it was lodged pretty good. I had to get a telescoping magnet to get it out of there. Just my advice...I wouldn't leave it...too much could go wrong. Just be patient and you fish it out.

That hole leads to the air filter, and then on into the engine.

Good news part 1.

Undo six screws and take the top off the airbox, and you can retrieve the lost screw.

Good news part 2. If you decide not to do this, the screw will just sit there. The air filter will prevent the screw from being drawn into the engine.

EDIT:

Sorry, I thought you'd dropped the screw into the airbox. If you dropped it below the battery, no worries. Just make sure that it didn't get into the radiator fan and jam it up.

Fred

Pick up a telescoping magnet from Autozone for a couple bucks, that ought to be able to fish it back out

Tried looking from underneath the bike, didn't see anything.

I'm off to Autozone now actually to see if they have the magnet.

I just had my tank off and completely removed the battery box and air box so I could do a compression test. There is a rubber baffle that rests between the top of the engine and the bottom of the battery box and front half of the air box. There are no moving parts in this area. the nearest moving parts are on the throttle body. I guess it would be possible for it to vibrate backwards and possibly affect its operation. Which would not be good.

I know it is a bit of a pain but I would probably pull the airbox and lift the battery box up enough to see under it without having to pull the plug caps. Its only 4 screws and loosening the 4 thottle body boots on the airbox. You have to have a long 4mm hex wrench though for the airbox boots. That way you are sure not to have any unsuspected surprises.

Good Luck

Lewis

OK, fished around with the magnet for a while and couldn't find anything. Took a quick local spin on it though to see if I noticed anything different or hear anything weird, and didn't.

I'm going to remove the tank and airbox either tomorrow or this weekend to see if I can locate the screw by that baffle somewhere. Otherwise I probably dropped it when I took it around the block. I'll have a mechanic take a look at it next time I bring it in for servicing (which isn't too far away) just to make sure.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in.