Go for it! Did you get all the caps off?
6/8. Was unable to locate it, if it’s up there. If it’s up there it’s hiding in a spot I can’t see, my magnets can’t reach, and my fingers can’t reach. I have long fingers. I have groped around up there like nobody’s business. My immediate move is to put all of the ring magnets I have onto one thicker wire and jimmy it all over the cam. Perhaps it’s tucked somewhere. More magnets = more attractive power right.
I bet the nut is to be found when lifting valve cover if not found when removing tappet covers.
That’s the next move, although it involves either pulling the motor or chopping the frame and installing a frame kit. I really, really don’t want to do either if I can avoid it.
Ok. I’ve been all over the bottom end. Trying to make sense of the path it could have taken. It is not on any of the flat surfaces that I can see.
I have fished down the cam chain tunnel from above with magnets on a stiff but bendable wire and shaken it like a Polaroid picture. No dice so far. I can keep trying.
1. Is it possible that it hit the flat surface at the bottom of the crank case and was washed forwards around that blind corner in the direction of the oil filter? How high is the oil level when the engine is running? High enough to allow it to flow forwards? I can’t quite get my camera around that bend.
2. Is it possible that it got hung up on the primary chain and carried backwards out of sight? That whole primary chain apparatus that travels backwards past the oil pump has zero clearance to get either magnets or inspection devices in there. Does checking back there require splitting the bottom end? Is it even possible that it travelled that direction? Where does it go?
The reason I ask this question is, 7 miles before the ticking started I heard two very quiet ticks. My engine wasn’t particularly loud but I had some speed and I assumed it was a stone clipping my exhaust or something. Now, I’m thinking it might have been the nut flying off, and the second tick may have been it bouncing somewhere. I then rode 7 miles on the highway. Then the ticking started and I crept 7 miles home (I should have googled the problem when I stopped - I would have left it there and come back with a trailer). I’m concerned that those 14 miles may have given the nut time to get carried somewhere a bit less close to home which is why none of the usual suspects have been fruitful so far. I’m probably wrong but I thought it could hurt to ask.
3. So far upon inspecting chains and sprockets I can not see any signs of damage either up top or down below.
But anyway, back to the valve cover we go.
