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I'm pretty sure you're gonna have to pull the head. To confirm whether the motors locked up, you can lift the back wheel off the ground, remove your spark plugs, put the trans in 1st, the gently try to rotate the back wheel forward & backward. Don't just yank it thru and let it come to an abrupt stop, that will cause even more damage.
If it rotates partially but comes to a stop, the screw is lodged and possibly embedded between your piston & head. In a worse case scenario, you may need a new head, piston & cylinder. Best case is you remove the screw and put it all back together. But if you're not finding the screw on top of the piston, it's likely embedded into the head.
Feel your pain. I sucked in a pin and 1 small bolt into a friends 73 CL 350 I was restoring for him. I caught it in time and it happened at idle in the garage. I had to pull the motor to get the head off. There wasn't too too much damage but I had to sand a lot of the gouges out and lap the valves. To make matters worse I dropped a rubber spacer into the sump when the head was off, so I had to split the cases then too...
One thing leads to another... I need a lift adapter or strategically place some 2x4s but the way things are going so far better off to get the adapter for $25 and be safe. So, will have an update tomorrow as HD is closed now.
This is a lesson I think we can all learn from, especially me. I've thought about buying "cheap" aftermarket parts to save a few bucks but if this happened to me, I would have no one else to blame but myself. There are a lot of Chinese look-a-like products that are tempting to buy. Sorry for your bad luck and hopefully your damage will be minimal
Yes, i hope my fail is everyone's gain. Not necessarily cheap, I think it is more so installation error. Looking back I believe I screwed the hex nut in too far and the red locktite couldn't hold it. Once that failed the other two couldn't handle the weight of the air cleaner and that's where the support holes have way. So probably a combination of the two. I will pay more attention to what I purchase.
PanheadRich,
Thanks for the advice, I did what you said and the wheel will move a little then stop with a click like it engaged a gear. Tried several times very slowly to see if I could hear any scratching or scraping noise and the click sound is a clean and consistent sound. So at this point I will wait for my Borescope to come in the mail and hopefully I will be able to see the piston head with no evidence of loose metal pieces. More to follow later...
Well that sucks, sorry to hear this. I'd have to assume the engines rotation can't complete the stroke due to hardware and possible derbies being lodged between the top of the piston and bottom of the head. Most likely embedded/stuck into the head. It's probably the rear head. I wouldn't have expected to hear any scratching sounds. Let's hope there's no valve or piston damage. You might be able to Dremel & sand any burrs away and still use that head. You'll just have to see what you have once you get inside.
Probably so but I have never done that before. Just thought to wait a couple of days to be able to see in there before cracking it open. Kinda like getting an X-ray before conducting open heart surgery.
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