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Am sure this has been done before......

Installed my first upgrade on the Conk, Murph’s risers, and while doing so dropped an Allen key down through the handlebar area that didn’t come out the bottom. I heard it drop somewhere through and into the fairing. Doh!! Am not too concerned about it as I’m sure it’s sitting in the hardest spot to get to without tearing down the whole bike! Are any of you riding around with tools clanging around inside the fairing?
 
Installed my first upgrade on the Conk, Murph’s risers, and while doing so dropped an Allen key down through the handlebar area that didn’t come out the bottom. I heard it drop somewhere through and into the fairing. Doh!! Am not too concerned about it as I’m sure it’s sitting in the hardest spot to get to without tearing down the whole bike! Are any of you riding around with tools clanging around inside the fairing?
Stuff usually ends up in the belly pan .
 
i dropped the key down the faring once. I didn't have much choice but to retrieve it.
check the belly pan. no, i never leave anything fallen into an engine bay or a bikes bodywork. But i have found previous owners mishaps. Including an allen key on the last c10. (and a few allen and body screws). *profit* 🤣
 
" i dropped the key down the faring once. I didn't have much choice but to retrieve it. "... I did that once in a busy city while shutting the engine off while waiting for an interminable traffic light to turn green. Thankfully in a catlike manner I caught the keys before they dropped out of sight.
I once found one of the two bolts that hold the instrument cluster in the belly pan.
 
Never really lost anything down that abyss, but, to this day I can't tell
you where the singularity that swallows up the front tank rubber mounts is.
 
Make certain it's not hung up in the radiator fan. If it is you may damage the fan or even overheat the engine.
 
I dropped my key down the neck of the bike one cold day at @ QT because of "cold finger fumblitis." Wife brought the spare. Carried a duplicate ever since. You might try one of those extendable magnet pick up tools to fish around down there and see if anything comes up. The key came out when I dropped the belly pan for the next oil change.
 
spare key is a good option on the bike. i have one hidden on both c10s. when i dropped mine i was at the vintage drag races out in the middle of nowhere. lol. (union, sc)
 
Another key drop destination is on top of the valve cover. I did a valve adjustment shortly after buying my C10 and found a rusty ignition key in the valve cover recess - who knows how long it had been there.

I learned from RWulf to tether the key to the handlebar to avoid this very thing - since Murphy's Law means it occurs at the worst time, and the farthest away from home as possible.

Takes about a second to undo the loop to remove or the key or loop it on when ready to go. I also keep a spare key on the bike.
 
Every bolt, nut and tool always found the belly pan...its only 4 screws...lol ull get so used to taking off the plastic u can do it in ur sleep...lol
 
Another key drop destination is on top of the valve cover. I did a valve adjustment shortly after buying my C10 and found a rusty ignition key in the valve cover recess - who knows how long it had been there.
Ditto for the valve cover, unless you heard the chink chink down the fairings, the valve cover has a flap between it and the radiator, catches items onto the valve cover. Especially if the bike was on the centerstand at the time. If on the side stand at the time of the tool drop, usually makes it to the belly pan.....usually.
 
Biggest problem when you replace crappy fixings with stainless steel ones, is you cannot use a magnet to retrive any you drop inside anything....I know very well 🤣
 
I dropped a bolt from the block off plates once. Right in the #2 cylinder. Stupid me not having the spark plug in. Luckily was able to get it out with the magnetic retriever.
 
Kind of related story sort of. Found a carb rubber clamp screw fused to # 1 piston with a broken valve there too. It was in a non runner parts bike thank the gods. Sad to see a nice bike gone like that. Head, piston, rod were toast.
 
When I was an A&P mechanic, one of the mechanics in our shop dropped a sheet-metal screw when working on a customer's engine (rear engine of a Cessna Skymaster, if you know what that is). He didn't take the time to find it (always a BAD mistake). Turns out it went down an open spark plug hole. Those engines are horizontally-opposed, like a big VW engine. The customer came back a couple of weeks later complaining of low power from the rear mill. Inspection found several jugs (or maybe all of them I don't remember) beaten to hell and back inside. Pistons shot-peened, intake and exhaust valves chipped, etc. That screw had traveled through the intake runners and cross-over tube from jug to jug before it went out the exhaust and wiped the vanes off the turbocharger turbine. Yes, the shop bought the customer an overhaul.
 
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