You'll love this one.

I just did the most stupid thing!

I just got my Cylinder Head re-done on my 89 300 CE 3.0 and I'm just ready to begin putting things back together. . Well...through some amazing display of physics or the paranormal or perhaps just Murphy's Law, the metal button from my flannel shirt sleeve managed to just "un-sew", come loose what-have-you at the exact time I was reaching above and opening the hood to the fully opened position.

Where did it go you ask? It took a nice "bounce off" of the radiator and then straight into the air and came right back down into the timing cover! - Remember that pit you get in your stomach when you do something bad? Well now I have it...

After further inspection, I saw the button sitting about 1/2 way down on the chain. No magnetic pick-up tool I have here has a small enough head to get down there and my "claw" type pick-up tool won't reach it as well.

I managed to magnetize a peice of bailling wire after I bent a hook on the end of it. Now I actully have the button hooked through one of the holes and "hanging" but due to the "wide bend" of the hook, I feel that I will loose the button on my way back up through the chain, and tensioner.

Since the top part of the motor is already off. The motor mounts are obviously right there. I have my engine hoist and I'm wondering if I should just remove the mounts and related items, raise the engine, remove the oil pan and drop it down.

Does anyone have any ideas or better yet a picture of the front of the 3.0 with the timing covers and accessories off? So I can see what the space looks like below the area where the button is.

I'd be glad to give it a shot pulling it straight up but if I loose it, I'm not sure I'll be able to find it. It's a pretty "beefy button" and Since I have a hold on it now, I don't want to loose it. It may be small enough to retreive with my magnetic pickup tool through the oil pan drain plug before I remove the pan but I'm not sure. (and that's if I could even get it into the pan). I don't want to risk having it drop and then not make it to the oil pan.

Any ideas??

I feel for you CE4me. The only thing I can think of is to use a thin piece of rod, metal, wood, whatever, and dab a glob of gasket sealer #2 on the end. Then, holding the rod as you would a billiard cue stick, guide the tip down towards your button. Push the sealer against the button so the button sticks to the rod, and carefully pull it straight back out. I used this trick successfully in a similar situation, and it worked. You just need the hands of a brain surgeon. I couldn't find a brain surgeon, so I had to do it myself.

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CE4me, why not use another piece of bailing wire with a hook on the end on the other side of the button in a different hole so that you've got a 'grip' on the button and pull it straight up. I'm really curious how this turns out for you. I've always thought things like this only happened to me.

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Fred Hoelzle

It's a shame but the bailing wire has few "bends" to it. It's (the button) on the "right side" of the timing chain cover (opposite side of the tensioner_ and there is'nt really a lot of room in there. Right now, the button is almost sitting vertical and I now see that the wire is'nt quite into the button hole... but actually holding the the button where it sits.

I'm looking now to see if one of my manuals has a photo or diagram that can give me an idea of where it would drop (if it does drop). I guess at some point I'm going to have to "make a move" and decide.

Looking at where the oil drain plug is and the location of the button and timing chain, I would imagine that it would fall right into the oil pan. (There is however a little "ledge" toward the top of the oil pan.

It's a pretty heavy button and the one I removed from the other sleeve does sink in oil.

I'm still looking at it now.

any chance you could rig some duct tape to some regular plastic straws or coffee straws and hook that up to your shop vac? should be strong enough of a vaccuum at that tiny diameter to hold on to a button at least far enough to have it drop somewhere more convenient...

my buttons usually fall off when I use the toilet somewhere where I need pants to function properly.

good luck

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Is it possible to "drizzle" a liquid glue down the piece of bailing wire to glue the button to it? I imagine it would take a deft touch but perhaps Gorilla glue or something of that nature would work. Let it dry and pull it out.

Tim

Do you have any thick, sticky grease? It would probably be better than gasket sealant b/c if you get any on the chain you wouldn't have to worry about it. It would just get washed off with oil.

Aww man, it's like a button is holding a gun to your head!

What brand of shirt is it?

The stick and glue method worked for me before, but I have alot of left over NERF guns (plastic air guns that shoot foam darts with suction cups on the end... about a cm in diameter)

I took one of the suction cups, lined it with Gorilla Glue (very strong glue), attached cup to thin bamboo stick, stuck on lost part, waited an hour and removed... saved my life and a lawn mower!

Hope you figure it out soon!

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2005 MBZ C55 AMG "Lorelai" @ 165,000 miles
1991 MBZ 300E "Benzachino II" @ 165,000 miles
1990 MBZ 500SL "Shoshanna" @ 118,000 miles

(On the hunt for a good used M103 engine as of 6/10/23, PM me if you have one to sell!)

Thanks for the suggestions and comments.

lyonstexas , That may have worked with the glue. It did'nt even occur to me.. but that was a good tip. I actually cut one of those real thin business card magnets thinking it would be thin enough to reach down there and get it.

No Luck. By the time I wiggled just a bit, the button was gone. Yikes! I was out of my mind. It was like one of those movies in slow motion. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo !

I then took the bailing wire, pushed it toward the oil pan to see if it was a clear path to the pan. Sure enough, Oil was on the bottom of the wire.

I have this 4" diameter by 4 inch long round 4 pole magnet. As a last chance, I decided to drain the oil, run the magnet along the bottom of the oil pan and see if I heard anything. To give you an idea of the strength of the magnet: As I rolled it along the bottom of the oil pan, it "shot toward" the front of the car and attached itself to the front swaybar!.

After prying it off of the swaybar, I rolled it along and heard a scraping from the inside of the pan and to my surprise, the button was sitting up on end and I was looking at it through the oil drain hole! There it was - Just Taunting me - !

The bad part: Drain hole small. Button Bigger. Doh!.

Then I notice (I'm guessing it's the oil sending unit) above the drain hole and to the right. 2 10mm bolts later, the sender was removed and I now had a 1" diameter hole. After 15 minutes of Guiding the washer with the magnet and fishing around with my magnetic pickup, Bam..... the sweet sound of "Clink". Washer removed. SO much for getting the head back on today. Oh well, tomorrow's another day.

Excellent work!

__________________
2006 BMW M5 "Heidi" @ 109,000 miles
2005 MBZ C55 AMG "Lorelai" @ 165,000 miles
1991 MBZ 300E "Benzachino II" @ 165,000 miles
1990 MBZ 500SL "Shoshanna" @ 118,000 miles

(On the hunt for a good used M103 engine as of 6/10/23, PM me if you have one to sell!)

That was good work. Where does one get a magnet like that? Sounds handy.

ya' know, I'm not sure where I got this thing.

It looks like it may have come from a motor of some kind. I'm sure it's from something I tore apart and thought was to cool to throw away. It's round with a hole in the center. And it has small "drilled areas" on the end where it must have been balanced.

It's machined and it looks like it must have rotated (kind of like a VCR head rotates) because it's got 2 smooth portions and 2 machined portions. (2 strong magnetic fields and 2 weak or opposite fields). I'm guessing that as it rotated, it generated and then collapsed the field twice per rotation.

Whatever it was for, it works great for "M/B Button Removal".

It's been stuck to the side of my Snap-On Chest for about 8 years now. (I have the chest - 6 foot tall model) full of tools and you can grab the magnet and pull the chest around the garage.)

Lesson learned.............................only work on your car in the nude.

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2007 C 230 Sport.

Great Story. You are patient genious after all......
Bottom line must be that all is well that ends well !

CE4me, congratulations!! Remember to add oil before starting the engine or you may have another, more difficult dilemma to solve.

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Fred Hoelzle