Found: Dramatic design flaw with Symetrical....

alright today i was workign on my dads 95 impreza wagon, red. i was replacing his valve cover gaskets. so i got the valve covers off, cleaned em up, and put itn the new gaskets. now i was reistnalling them. there are 3 bolts on each side which hold the covers on. the passenger side went on no prob. the drivers side i cant say the same. i had the fron bolt and the middle bolt in and was working ont he last one. when i dropped it. it fell onto the crossmember. so i tried to find it. i jacked up the car and felt every where i could on the crossmember. couldnt feel it. so i took of the valve cover agian and felt around for it. i found it. it was lodged between the motor mount and the crossmember. i can find no way to get it out w/ out major work. so i cut m losses and put the cover back on. this time i am going to put the middle bolt in the back so i will have two bolts in front and back. i put the front one in. then the back one. well i dropped it again. and it fell to exactly the same spot. so the cover came of again and luckily the orignal botl i dropped prevented the second from getting wedged in. so i could retrieve teh second one. and now this time i didnt drop the second bolt.

Time: 1 hour to remove, clean and reisntall. 1.5hours tring to grab dropped bolt.

so the design flaw here is that because the car is designed symetrically when you drop a bolt it will go directly to the center which is also the most difficult place to reach it.

 

My condolences. ) Hahaha! Thanks for the tip. I'll try to keep a steady hand when I do mine.

 

or stuff somthing underneath what your working on so things dont get lost..."drop cloth" if you will

 

would a magnetic pickup tool help you or no?

 

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by wrxpeed

would a magnetic pickup tool help you or no?


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i think this bolt is gone. the only possible way to retrieve it is to remove the motor mount, or remove the head, or maybe i could get it if i dropped the headers.

the bolt has wedged itself under alittle lip on the motor mount, and a curved part of the x-member. (atleast this is what i have gathered by blindly feeling around). i tried to unbolt the motor mount, and the headers but i couldnt break the nuts lose (no air tools). so i will have to by a new bolt and gasket washer thingy at subaru on monday.

 

are you jacking up the car by that x-member? maybe the pressure from the jack is compressing the motor mount and wedging the bolt in there.

try setting the car up on jackstands and then lifting the motor slightly (wath a block between jack and oil pan) to take the weight off the mounts.

 

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Chux

are you jacking up the car by that x-member? maybe the pressure from the jack is compressing the motor mount and wedging the bolt in there.

try setting the car up on jackstands and then lifting the motor slightly (wath a block between jack and oil pan) to take the weight off the mounts.
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tried it. ordered a new bolt from subie. it comes in on thursday. it costs 80 cents after discount.