Pickup ate my socket

[wulfman92]

I have a ‘06 Sierra half ton pickup with a 5.3l engine that needed a new water pump today. Pretty easy job, but the wind was blowing about 25 mph on a 40 degree day in the shade. Still pretty nice weather for January in Wyoming. Anyways, had a lower radiator hose being a bear and took quite a bit of persuading to get loose. I had a rack of sockets sitting on the air filter housing and as I was leaning over the tools to position myself to get full torque with my grip, I got her loose, but the 20mm socket came off the rack and I never found it. After some time, I had to admit, it was gone

[DCP]

Go back tomorrow and try again.

[chsparkman]

Sounds like my adventures in mechanics. Something always goes wrong.

[lefty o]

likely rolled down the frame rail. dropped a header bolt down one once. a few years later when it was time to upgrade engines in the hot rod again, there it was, stuck between the body and frame.

[pcolapaddler]

I lost a 15mm socket in the front of an Escort or Tempo when I worked at a Ford dealer about 35 years ago.

I wondered if that car 'developed' a rattle that wouldn't go away.



Sent from my SM-G935U using Tapatalk

[WheelgunConvert]

I have a ‘06 Sierra half ton pickup with a 5.3l engine that needed a new water pump today. Pretty easy job, but the wind was blowing about 25 mph on a 40 degree day in the shade. Still pretty nice weather for January in Wyoming. Anyways, had a lower radiator hose being a bear and took quite a bit of persuading to get loose. I had a rack of sockets sitting on the air filter housing and as I was leaning over the tools to position myself to get full torque with my grip, I got her loose, but the 20mm socket came off the rack and I never found it. After some time, I had to admit, it was gone

Couple suggestions. Use a penlight in near total darkness..it lets you be very deliberate with the beam and you might catch a reflection. Also, Try a flashlight color other than white can also be useful.

Good luck

[JimB..]

You’ve obviously failed to sacrifice a sufficient number of 10mm sockets in the past few months.

[Alstep]

I swear some of my tools went through escape & evasion training!!!

[Omega]

So one day I was finished working on my truck, and accidentally dropped my tool case and flipped a few sockets onto the grass, but when I finished picking them up I ended up with like 8 extra sockets. They were craftsman too, but from a different set. Never found out where they came from, nearest I could tell, someone else must have been fixing their vehicle in the same spot right before me. I still have them in a baggie, in case I ever find out who dropped them, I'm just glad my lawn mower didn't find them first.

[smoked turkey]

I am constantly losing things. It drives me nuts until I find it. I hope you run across that socket soon and it is safe and sound where you left it.

[EDG]

I was watching a guy when he dropped a bolt down the distributor hole of a 427 Chevy in a 1966 Chevelle.
He had to pull the engine to get the pan off.

[Three44s]

Look at the trouble we get into without really trying!!

A fellow who used to work at our ranch used to always exclaim he wished he had a “pair of eye balls on a stick”! Well, folks, you can trundle down to Harbor Freight and buy them now a days!

Just a thought.

Three44s

[Bazoo]

Might check on the shelf the radiator sets on if you haven't already.

I was tinkering on a car once, we got done and took it for a test drive. A while after we got back, I realized my leatherman tool was missing. I went out and looked under the hood and there it was laying there. Nothing holding it in place. I thanked God for it as it was my granny's tool before it was mine.

[abunaitoo]

Do what a damacrat would do.
Drop another one, in the same place, to see if you can find the first one.
If you still can't find it, drop another.
Keep on doing it until you get the results you want.

[DougGuy]

You’ve obviously failed to sacrifice a sufficient number of 10mm sockets in the past few months.

Ahhhh yes the sacrificial 10mm.. I actually buy several 10mm combination wrenches and place them strategically so that I am able to find one before my BP goes through the roof after about the 3rd lap around all common places I usually see one.

I had a metric socket set in my vehicle for the longest time, missing one of the smaller sockets, I kept an eye out for it but never found it. I had ASSUMED it was a 10mm just by their association with Murphy, (Of Murphy's Law fame) and I ebayed one. Lo and behold, the postman brings the lowly 10mm socket, and I go to replace the missing socket, to my surprise, IT'S NOT A 10mm AT ALL! It's an 11mm!! Now this just confounds all logic to me, but I digress, I gave in, one cannot have too many 10mm sockets and wrenches it's impossible to do, so now I have a full set of sockets again, and Murphy gets a reboot and a restart on which 10mm socket he will cause me to misplace. The original one or the "replacement."

:bigsmyl2:

[robg]

teaspoons go to the same place.

[Lloyd Smale]

cut the hoses. If the water pump is being replaced its silly to reuse the old hoses. There probably tired too after near 15 years.

[poppy42]

If I had a nickel for every socket wrench I lost while working on numerous vehicles I’d be a rich man today

[Three44s]

We planting small tools in our hay fields ..... not even once have a single one sprouted babies!

We keep waiting .... as hope springs eternal!

Three44s

[dverna]

Dropped a 10mm wrench working on my old Mercedes. Never could find the darn thing. Frustrating when it happens

[Froogal]

The secret to not losing tools is to just let someone else do the work. I used to do ALL of my own mechanic work, and even did work for others, but now I'm too old and these modern vehicles simply have too much stuff under the hood. They are not fun to work on, so I don't.

[Hickok]

For many years I operated a Cat D9H. One day a mechanic and I were replacing the fan/waterpump belts. The mechanic was removing a part of the grill behind the radiator to get better access. Using an air-gun, he had a 1/2" 6 inch extension that went flying when he pressed the trigger.

We both looked for a long time for that extension, down in the belly-pan, high and low, and we couldn't find it.

Everything went well for about 3 days, and then when working, I heard a sudden loud bang, saw anti-freeze blowing every where and the diesel engine started to shake and vibrate. Immediately I shut her down.

Well we found the 6 inch extension. Apparently it bounced up into the fan, went through the radiator and that was that! The radiator fan-blades were bent all to hades, and they had hit the radiator leaving nice big circles around the radiator. The extension went through the radiator side-ways, really leaving an ugly mark!!!

Our boss, a real good guy, asked the mechanic if the 1/2" 6 inch extension was tore up or bent. "Nope, it never hurt it a bit, good as new." said the mechanic.

Boss replied, "That's good, that is one thing we wont have to replace!":bigsmyl2:

[calm seas]

My knee-jerk thought would be in the valley between valve covers, or on the cross member. Might have dropped through a lightering hole in the frame. A bore scope might help locate it.

[toallmy]

I would just like to know where my 1/2 inch & 9/16 sockets keep going ........
Thank goodness my local auto parts supplier sells individual sockets .

[rockrat]

My best friend lost his Buck knife while plowing a field. Two years later, plowing same field and saw something on top of the ground he had just plowed. It was his knife!!

Lost a few things working on cars. Sometimes I have driven down the road and heard a "clunk" under the car and looked in the rear view mirror to see one of my tools headed towards the grass

[Elkins45]

A 20mm is a pretty good sized socket. There are only so many places one of those could hide. A 10mm can hide anywhere.

[Petrol & Powder]

Whenever I drop a tool, bolt, clamp, whatever.....I always cringe a little as it's falling through the engine compartment. If it goes all the way through and lands on the ground I am very happy.
It's the ones that go ting, ting, ting.........and then silence that make you pull your hair out.

You haven't lived until you've dropped a socket and it bounced into a hole on a hollow frame rail and slid halfway down the inside of that rail, stopping somewhere mid-car.
OR
You were carefully removing a carburetor to fix an unknown vacuum leak only to find that one of the screws on the bottom of the carb base plate was stripped out and loose. When you pull the carburetor off the intake the loose screw falls down the intake. You now know the source of the vacuum leak but you have another problem.

[bob208]

when I bought my Harley in 2000 it had a tinny rattle in the exhaust. had it the dealer for service and the screaming eagle mufflers. when they pulled the muffler a 1/2 inch wrench fell out.

[Hickory]

Murphy's Law lives under the hood of every motor vehicle in the world!!!

[Bazoo]

Crazy fella came to church one time. When the offering plate went around he left a 1/4 drive socket and extention. He must have felt guilty about them being china brand cause he ain't been back. We was hoping next time he'd leave a ratchet.

[Hickok]

You were carefully removing a carburetor to fix an unknown vacuum leak only to find that one of the screws on the bottom of the carb base plate was stripped out and loose. When you pull the carburetor off the intake the loose screw falls down the intake. You now know the source of the vacuum leak but you have another problem.I can feel your pain. Once dropped a wing nut off the air cleaner cover/lid down in a 4 barrel Holley. I was fixing up the cable on a hand choke. OF COURSE, I was tinkering around with the "butterflies" while hooking up the choke wire!!!

Guess where the wing nut went.....go head and guess!!![smilie=b:

[john.k]

I was working on a boring plant 40 ft above the river at the refinery product terminal.....dropped a big spanner ,as it hit the water underneath a shark came up under it and probably ate it....Fella working for the refinery said all the guys throw their lunches in the river off the wharf,sharks would grab anything hit the water....I started wearing my saftey harness after that.

[murf205]

I had to replace the high pressure hose on my 04 Jeep Grand Cherokee yesterday and my punishment for not losing a socket was having to go to NAPA to buy a 16mmx18mm flare nut wrench to take the line out of the pump(16mm) and the steering sector(18mm). $27 for 1 wrench that nobody else in town had. I would have gladly sacrificed a socket to the lost tool Gods instead, but at least the jeep is not hemorrhaging p s fluid anymore.

[jsizemore]

I had to take the intake/filter box completely out to retrieve a socket in my 2003. Also got a smaller one under the coolant tank. Upper control arm has some interesting creases. Happy hunting.

Almost forgot between the frame cross member and the rack and pinion.

[MaryB]

There is a 1979 Ford van driving around with a 1/2 inch socket in the frame rail. Friend helping me replace the motor dropped it as he was handing it down to me. I watched it hit the exhaust and bounce sideways into the frame where it promptly rolled down to the rear. Tried fishing with a magnet and couldn't get it. Every time I would step on the brakes I could hear it rattle int he frame.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

So, one day I'm driving home from the mechanics shop, I don't recall what I had repaired? but I got 1/4 mile down a highway (55MPH zone) and I hear ...BANG, BANG, CLANG ... I look in the rear view mirror and see a chrome stick (9/16" wrench I suspect?) bouncing on the pavement. I turned the car back and looked for the object, it must have landed in tall grass? cuz I couldn't find it. I circled back to the repair shop...the mechanic said he wasn't missing any wrenches, he looked the car over, didn't see anything suspicious or missing?
...I think it was a wrench left laying somewhere and fell free when I was going highway speed and I suspect the mechanic didn't want to fess up.

[jimlj]

I have a ‘06 Sierra half ton pickup with a 5.3l engine that needed a new water pump today. Pretty easy job, but the wind was blowing about 25 mph on a 40 degree day in the shade. Still pretty nice weather for January in Wyoming. Anyways, had a lower radiator hose being a bear and took quite a bit of persuading to get loose. I had a rack of sockets sitting on the air filter housing and as I was leaning over the tools to position myself to get full torque with my grip, I got her loose, but the 20mm socket came off the rack and I never found it. After some time, I had to admit, it was gone

If your part of Wyoming is like mine, you will find it in May when the snow melts.

[wulfman92]

Well I went back to work today and I work twelve hour shifts, so I crawled under the pickup when I got home tonight to check the oil pan shield. I didn’t find it there, so I checked up by the bumper while laying underneath. Nothing yet, but not close to giving up yet!

[iomskp]

I have a habit of loosing tools and the skin of my knuckles when working on cars, now I pay people to loose their tools and skin their knuckles.

[Three44s]

There is a 1979 Ford van driving around with a 1/2 inch socket in the frame rail. Friend helping me replace the motor dropped it as he was handing it down to me. I watched it hit the exhaust and bounce sideways into the frame where it promptly rolled down to the rear. Tried fishing with a magnet and couldn't get it. Every time I would step on the brakes I could hear it rattle int he frame.

Locate a friend with a good sized excavator and hook a chain to the rear bumper ..... that is if the rear bumper can stand it. Stand the vehicle on it’s nose and bounce it a bit .... that socket should shake loose!

Three44s

[Petrol & Powder]

Locate a friend with a good sized excavator and hook a chain to the rear bumper ..... that is if the rear bumper can stand it. Stand the vehicle on it’s nose and bounce it a bit .... that socket should shake loose!

Three44s
Hahahahaha

Or, just find a small hole in the frame rail forward of the offending socket. Spray some "greatstuff" (expanding foam) into the frame rail. immediately get into the car, drive forward and slam on the brakes. The socket will roll forward into the sticky foam and be forever trapped. You will not get the socket back but the rattling will stop :smile:

[murf205]

I had to take the intake/filter box completely out to retrieve a socket in my 2003. Also got a smaller one under the coolant tank. Upper control arm has some interesting creases. Happy hunting.

Almost forgot between the frame cross member and the rack and pinion.

The P S hose was a piece of cake to fix. The air filter box hold down bolt nuts were spinning and you cant get to the last one unless you take the fender well out. Took about 1 1/2 hrs to get the box out. I hope I am forgiven for the names I called the design team at Jeep!

[Elkins45]

There is a 1979 Ford van driving around with a 1/2 inch socket in the frame rail. Friend helping me replace the motor dropped it as he was handing it down to me. I watched it hit the exhaust and bounce sideways into the frame where it promptly rolled down to the rear. Tried fishing with a magnet and couldn't get it. Every time I would step on the brakes I could hear it rattle int he frame.

My mom had a 71 Dodge Dart. Somehow a marble (we think) managed to get under the back deck and get into a low spot in the crossmember. For years you could hear it roll across the back and bump when it hit the other side every time you turned a curve. We never could find it and it was still there when she sold it in the 80s.

[lightman]

Me and a buddy find lots of tools when we stop at intersections to pick up weights. Some of them are nice brands but most are imports. Around here, in farm land, you see some fairly large wrenches laying in the highway. They will work on a disc or other implement and leave a tool laying on a flat surface. I found a large special purpose socket wrench last year that truckers use to open the hoppers on hopper bottom trailers. This is a one piece socket wrench about 1-1/2 or 1-5/8 in.

[joesig]

Ahhhh yes the sacrificial 10mm.. I actually buy several 10mm combination wrenches and place them strategically so that I am able to find one before my BP goes through the roof after about the 3rd lap around all common places I usually see one.

I had a metric socket set in my vehicle for the longest time, missing one of the smaller sockets, I kept an eye out for it but never found it. I had ASSUMED it was a 10mm just by their association with Murphy, (Of Murphy's Law fame) and I ebayed one. Lo and behold, the postman brings the lowly 10mm socket, and I go to replace the missing socket, to my surprise, IT'S NOT A 10mm AT ALL! It's an 11mm!! Now this just confounds all logic to me, but I digress, I gave in, one cannot have too many 10mm sockets and wrenches it's impossible to do, so now I have a full set of sockets again, and Murphy gets a reboot and a restart on which 10mm socket he will cause me to misplace. The original one or the "replacement."

:bigsmyl2:

Murphy likes you. I find the fastest way to find something I "lost" is to buy a replacement. My most recent adventure was misplacing a heatgun. I'm in the process of packing to move so many tools are in boxes. I did keep "emergency" tools out such as hammers, ratchets, the heat gun, etc. I looked high and low for that thing for weeks. I know I'm going to need one some day and not be able to wait days for it to arrive so I order another. Like clockwork, two days after it arrives I find the first heatgun inside a packed box. The designs are slightly different and now I can do a NY reload :-)

I used to work in at marina as a mechanic. One day a screwdriver went for a swim! (Thankfully I can't make that claim) As luck would have it the Snap-On guy was there that day and I invested in a couple of the magnet wands they have. A few minutes fishing and I had my screwdriver back.

[Mal Paso]

I have a habit of loosing tools and the skin of my knuckles when working on cars, now I pay people to loose their tools and skin their knuckles.

The last repair I paid a licensed shop to do, a timing belt, lasted 3 years before the belt started coming apart. The "mechanic" had stripped the threads, In The Engine Block, for the belt tensioner. No more "ase certified mechanics" for me.

[rockrat]

Changed the oil in my Tundra the other Saturday. Spinning the drain plug off, almost had it and reached up again and it fell off before I got a hand on it. Fell down and hit the drain pan. Let it all the oil drain out then went to get the drain plug, no drain plug!! Poured the oil out , looking for the plug, no plug. Looked all over the ground and had wife come out and look in the snow at the side of the driveway. No plug. Getting ready to push the pickup to the back of the driveway so I could get out wifes car and go into town to get another plug.

Had felt on top of the shield under the engine, but no luck, but this time really stuck my hand way up on the shield. Finally found it about 6" forward of the back of the shield, under the oil pan. Guess the thing had bounced off the drain pan and landed way up on the shield!!

[dkf]

Get at least one of the telescoping magnet pickup tools. It has saved me many a times dropping something in the engine compartment or other confined space. Even if you can't see it just swiping the magnet around can grab it. Well if what you are after is magnetic.

[MaryB]

Me and a buddy find lots of tools when we stop at intersections to pick up weights. Some of them are nice brands but most are imports. Around here, in farm land, you see some fairly large wrenches laying in the highway. They will work on a disc or other implement and leave a tool laying on a flat surface. I found a large special purpose socket wrench last year that truckers use to open the hoppers on hopper bottom trailers. This is a one piece socket wrench about 1-1/2 or 1-5/8 in.

My handyman jack was found laying on the highway. I ran an ad in Craigslist to see if someone would claim it, no takers so it is mine now...

[woodbutcher]

[smilie=s: Not a tool.But will sure tickle yer funny bone.A few years ago there was a small article in a Florida news paper about a person that took their car to the dealer to have a hissing sound under the dash checked out.
A 6 foot Boa was removed from under the dash.Wonder if the mechanic had to call for a change of wardrobe?And way back in the day when I was putting a newly rebuilt engine
in my 53 Studebaker(swapped a 6 to an 8)I lost my 1/2x9/16th box wrench.Even pulled the intake to check in the lifter valley.Ya reckon Ole George was around back then?This was about 50 years ago.Have lost many more since.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[Pressman]

Changed the oil in my Tundra the other Saturday. Spinning the drain plug off, almost had it and reached up again and it fell off before I got a hand on it. Fell down and hit the drain pan. Let it all the oil drain out then went to get the drain plug, no drain plug!! Poured the oil out , looking for the plug, no plug. Looked all over the ground and had wife come out and look in the snow at the side of the driveway. No plug. Getting ready to push the pickup to the back of the driveway so I could get out wifes car and go into town to get another plug.


Little bit different drain plug story. Way back in time, 1975, On a cold winter night, I mean really cold, I had stopped at Missouri Valley Iowa for coffee. About 2 am, so it's really cold. Got back on I-29 headed north, drove about 3 miles when the warning lights started flashing, the low oil pressure bell was ringing, yes bell, I check the oil pressure gauge and it read 000. hit the switch to kill the engine and coasted off onto the shoulder.
Looked under the truck, 1973 Diamond Reo with a brand new Cummins Hy Torque 270 engine and the drain plug had fallen out. Caught a ride back to Missouri Valley to call the company for rescue. Talked to an old guy hanging around there and he said just take a small plug out of a 55 gallon drum and it will fit the drain hole. The attended was game, so we got a plug out of an oil drum, 5 gallons of oil and the attendants pickup went back to the truck, put the new p-lug in, filled it with oil and fired it up. No more issues. It was so cold that the oil dripping out of the drain pan was frozen into an 8 inch high stalagmite.

[lefty o]

[smilie=s: Not a tool.But will sure tickle yer funny bone.A few years ago there was a small article in a Florida news paper about a person that took their car to the dealer to have a hissing sound under the dash checked out.
A 6 foot Boa was removed from under the dash.Wonder if the mechanic had to call for a change of wardrobe?And way back in the day when I was putting a newly rebuilt engine
in my 53 Studebaker(swapped a 6 to an 8)I lost my 1/2x9/16th box wrench.Even pulled the intake to check in the lifter valley.Ya reckon Ole George was around back then?This was about 50 years ago.Have lost many more since.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

snake removal, thats a thousand dollar bill if i ever seen one.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

When I was working,many years ago I often drove down a street that had several garages on it. I kept my eyes open for tools and it was a rare day when I didn't find a wrench or a socket. One I found was a combination socket and open end wrench made by Proto. I still have it. Mechanics will lay a tool on the fender well and forget it when they go for a test drive. It usually bounces off while they are driving.

[Mal Paso]

I think it depends on vehicle mass and how it is driven. I once drove my old ford diesel service body truck downtown to the hardware store for some part. When I got back I looked for my coffee. The ceramic mug was sitting on the back bumper of the truck I just drove and still half full of coffee.

[lightman]

One of my better finds was near a road but not on the road. A 16" Proto adjustable wrench. Tied to a rope and hanging on a power line!

A few years ago scrap prices got up really high and the druggies were stealing copper wire off of everything around here. Pivot systems, irrigation wells, abandoned buildings and houses, and power lines. Pole grounds and neutrals were popular. They would tie an object on a rope and throw it over the neutral (the bottom line) and pull it down. They missed and it did a double wrap around the top line. Wrenches were a favorite item to use and they were often stolen. This wrench had initials scratched on it and I ask every farmer in the area if they recognized them.

[Slugster]

The old saying was: You can never have too many 1/2" wrenches. That saying has been replaced with: You can never have too many 10mm wrenches.

My story of lost and found: My wife took my workmobile to the tire shop to have new tires put on it. The mechanic said there was a bad smell around the car and started poking around to identify it. Opened the hood and found a big white Leghorn rooster had climbed up into the engine compartment and died there. Guys in the shop drew straws as to who would have to remove the rooster. Short straw wasn't happy.
Several of the mechanics took pictures with their phones. I'm sure that a pic of that rooster lives on somewhere on the internet.

I, very sadly, finally moved my SAE standard tools to the lower drawers of one of my roll around tool boxes. Hated to have to do that, but the metric tools are what I use now. Still find a standard bolt or nut occasionally, but not often. Dang it.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

The old saying was: You can never have too many 1/2" wrenches. That saying has been replaced with: You can never have too many 10mm wrenches.

My story of lost and found: My wife took my workmobile to the tire shop to have new tires put on it. The mechanic said there was a bad smell around the car and started poking around to identify it. Opened the hood and found a big white Leghorn rooster had climbed up into the engine compartment and died there. Guys in the shop drew straws as to who would have to remove the rooster. Short straw wasn't happy.
Several of the mechanics took pictures with their phones. I'm sure that a pic of that rooster lives on somewhere on the internet.

I, very sadly, finally moved my SAE standard tools to the lower drawers of one of my roll around tool boxes. Hated to have to do that, but the metric tools are what I use now. Still find a standard bolt or nut occasionally, but not often. Dang it.

Slugster, I know what you mean. When we moved into a senior community and I sold my pick up I no longer needed all those fractional wrenches. I called some nephews and asked if they wanted any of them. Nope, can't use 'em. Don't you wish when you were young an uncle had called you with that offer?

[jsizemore]

I think it depends on vehicle mass and how it is driven. I once drove my old ford diesel service body truck downtown to the hardware store for some part. When I got back I looked for my coffee. The ceramic mug was sitting on the back bumper of the truck I just drove and still half full of coffee.

Was this on Hwy 1?

[catmandu]

I've lost my share of tools that seem to just disappear into the aeither.... I dropped a transmission once and found a 1/2 in ratchet socket and extension riding on top. My brother pulled a fender and out dropped a 3/8 In ratchet and socket. So I've lost way more than I've gained but at least I found one or two.

Paul in WNY

[robg]

Had a triumph tiger 1050 in the workshop ,been stood for a while wouldn't start .took air box lid off full of nuts some mouse was using it as a store.

[Cole440]

Loosing things drives me crazy! I have been doing some auto work myself. Pulled the transmission out of my 1996 7.3 ford to do the clutch today! My 15mm socket is missing but luckily it was before the project. I think its time I break down and get a new one...

[Winger Ed.]

I think its time I break down and get a new one...

That's the best, and quickest way to make the old one reappear.

[calm seas]

The intermittent rattle...put a lightbulb behind the bunk drawer of a jerk relief on the boat. It rolls in a curve, tink,rrrrrrr, tink, stops, starts. Affected by wave motion. Not that I would ever do that.

[popper]

In the dorm, spin a half dollar or quarter on the concrete floor. People below get the noise! Lug nut in the hub cap! Or inside the door panel.