I’ve used all of my wrenching luck...

"HoustonRunner" (houstonrunner)
07/01/2019 at 23:14 • Filed to: None

I’ve used all of my wrenching luck for quite a while. Cleaning the throttle body this weekend I had a few close calls.

First, when I was taking it off after getting it all disassembled I heard a ‘clink’, but didn’t see anything. I looked all over and under but didn’t see anything. I silently hoped it was something random that was stuck somewhere and not part of what I was taking apart.

Then when putting it back together, of course two of the four studs are in tough locations. There is a washer and nut on each stud, and I ended up dropping the washer once on each one. The engine bay of the E28 isn’t terribly busy so I found both fairly easily.

Of course I was eager to get it buttoned up and go for a test drive, so I kind of forgot about the clink.

I got back after the successful test and backed the car into the garage as usual. As I was walking around the front of the car a shiny object caught my eye. It was the part in my hand below.

I had NO idea where it came from, so I put it in the box where I keep my keys and went along with the rest of my day.

Fast forward to today, and I’m looking back through the many pictures I took during disassembly and something caught my eye. Turns out the part is a catch for the throttle cable on the throttle arm. When I was twisting the round part back on the cable I did have to twist it way past the mark I had made on the cable, but couldn’t figure out any reason why.

Man, I was lucky. Honestly, it probably wouldn’t have caused an issue for a while, but it would have eventually.

DISCUSSION (7)

shop-teacher > HoustonRunner
07/01/2019 at 23:33

Phew!

Bylan - Hoarder of LS400's > HoustonRunner
07/02/2019 at 00:00

ALWAYS TAKE PICTURES OF DISASSEMBLY. GOOD catch there

functionoverfashion > HoustonRunner
07/02/2019 at 09:08

I was doing something simple on my car over the winter, when I dropped the tool I was using - a torx bit - down to the tray below the engine. OK, harmless, but now what? I don’t exactly have multiples of those, and now I’d have to jack up the car and take off the plastic shield underneath, which just turned a 5-minute job into a 1-hr job because the driveway is snowy and it’s not easy to get it lifted up safely, plus that stuff is all buried in the shed.

I think I got it as tight as I could without the tool, then bought another one on amazon or something. I eventually found the lost one in the driveway, months later. What are the odds that it would come out from the plastic shield right there in the driveway? It never would have if I had tried to do that.

vondon302 > HoustonRunner
07/02/2019 at 09:31

Lucky!

HoustonRunner > functionoverfashion
07/02/2019 at 09:44

Exactly my point! That was lucky.

HoustonRunner > Bylan - Hoarder of LS400's
07/02/2019 at 09:46

Agree. And looking at the second picture this morning (which was taken after I put it back together last night), I don't think it is fully seated in the white plastic catch. Need to look at it tonight.

functionoverfashion > HoustonRunner
07/02/2019 at 10:10

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve dropped things into the bilge of my boat. It goes directly under the engine into the nasty, oily water and of course it’s impossible to see and nearly impossible to reach. I’ve also found all kinds of unrelated things in bilges when looking for that 7/16" socket I just dropped haha.