Yep you guessed it, I didn't quite block up the gap enough. Doh!

Question is I've taken the sump off it's not in there or the oil strainer. I gave it a bloody good shake it didn't come out, so I then took the clutch cover off to see if it was stuck to the pickup but no luck.

Could it be inside the generator cover? The engine turns over fine the whole 360 degrees (by hand obviously!).

It couldn't find it's way into the gearbox could it?

I'm just more embarrassed than anything!

that is not good...have you got a flexible magnet tool, to go around the little edges, corners from top side of the engine...?

No but I can get one, I didn't see it fall down there but it was nowhere to be seen . I may take it off the abba stand and shake it from side to side see if that gets it out. Would you stick the flexible magnet down from the heads or stick it up through the sump gap? The sparkplugs were all in so it's no inside the cylinders.

Sprinter wrote:No but I can get one, I didn't see it fall down there but it was nowhere to be seen . I may take it off the abba stand and shake it from side to side see if that gets it out. Would you stick the flexible magnet down from the heads or stick it up through the sump gap? The sparkplugs were all in so it's no inside the cylinders.

Be carefull with that, mate! May harm your search for the shim even more.

Work with a flexible magnet tool from top to down first, try all small gaps, areas, edges where it may be "hidden" that are not direct visible to you. May be well near the openings near the top cover side...Haynes manual advices to stick some cloth or similar to prevent shims falling into these top openings (I used some thin cartons of an old package of cereals, I cut it into sort of U-shapes to cover these openings and then on top stuffed gently with some cloth).

try a metal detector looooool

rider4life wrote:try a metal detector looooool

or X-ray!

Fish around behind the valve springs with a small strong magnet, it may well be still sitting there.

Dave.

arsey30 wrote:Fish around behind the valve springs with a small strong magnet, it may well be still sitting there.

Dave.

Thats where I found one that I thought dropped. Get a good light and have a look around the valve springs. I sweated bullets when it happened to me. What a nightmare.

When doing valve clearance I used this small piece of tool of the brand Tengtools (part.no 582MI)...it is a pen size with 3-in-1-tool (contains a very strong but slim sized telescopic magnet pick up, etching scribe pen and fully adjustable mirror). The mirror may come very handy to view if a shim is fitted correct, and in case of a dropped shim, to view in those difficult areas of the engine. Of course some good light is needed.

I got the stray one out of mine by taking the rear tail unit off, grabbing the subframe and lifting and banging the thing up and down like a moneybox. I suppose difference was it was actually jamming the engine somewhere so took some careful winding back let it be free to come out.

Best of luck. Made me sick with worry when it happened to me.