I thought it would be entertaining to hear what strange, out of place things you have found in engines or other parts of machinery you have worked on.

What brings this to mind is the second grader (out of two I have ever worked on) that had small parts left inside the engine oil pump pickup bell that subsequently entered the oil pump gears and damaged things.

The first was the 212 9T we bought a couple years ago. When we brought it home non running, we pulled it off the trailer, checked the oil and fuel and pull-started it. Cranked right up, but no oil pressure and also found that the clutch was sticking so I couldn't get it in a low gear and it wouldn't pull off in high which was what it had cranked up in. Shut it down before it did any (more) damage.

Pulled the engine to remove the clutch and check into the oil pressure problem and discovered something rattling around in the suction bell. 2 small roll pins! When I disassembled the pump, the damage to the gears showed that at least one more pin had been left inside the suction screen and was sucked into the pump and damaged the gears. That engine is running with a filed down set of gears in it today. It has pretty good pressure.

The second is the 12E 99E we have bought and have been working on/looking at:D since last winter. This machine had a piston fail and the rod beat the sleeve out and broke the block so the former owner bought a new block and a bunch of parts and never repaired the engine other than taking the head and pan off before pulling the grader out of the shop into the weather for a few years.

We are currently reassembling the engine using the new block and the few new parts he had bought that were the correct size and an aftermarket overhaul set. Picked the oil pump up off the floor where it had been laying for many months and discovered the drive gear was loose on the shaft. It is on a keyed taper so the gear and shaft both are toast.

Then discovered the shaft wouldn't turn anyway so after disassembling the pump, we found it had ingested a sheetmetal lock used under the head of bolts in CAT engines. The kind where you bend the tab up after you tighten the bolt. This was far too large to fit through the intake screen which was new. The new screen had been fitted to the suction bell with pieces of the old screen (and the locking tab) loose inside:eek:

The #6 piston came apart and stopped the engine, but the rod bearings couldn't have lasted long with no oil pressure. Crank was already 0.040 under so this thing had been overhauled at least once before. It is now 0.050 under with aftermarket bearings.

The other, probably more common thing I found was the D333 parts engine had a good sized rag sucked into the far end of the intake runner on the head. Positioned where it was, I am sure it was sucked there by the running engine. I don't think #1 cylinder was breathing very well.

So what have you found?

Found a Craftsman pin punch inside a 6v53 Detroit, in the oil trough between the head & block...a 9/16 Snap-on socket in the oil pan of a JD 4955...a big screwdriver in the gas tank of a JD 620-the plastic handle was dissolving & plugging the carb...a red rag in the trans. case on a JD 4230...a package of Starburst candy inside the dash of a 4020 JD-(the wrapper was still good, so I ate 'em-I was a long way from anywhere, out in the field)...a big plastic plug in the intake pipe of a JD 4430, this was a new tractor that came out w/low HP...finally found a bolt in the bottom of the steering clutch compartment of a D8, about an hour after I dropped it in there,w/the weather turning worse by the minute, up on top of a mountain- I could go on & on, but you get the picture, huh? Stuff gets where it doesn't belong...
Ron in CO...

A fellow once brought a 17A D7 to my shop for me to help him overhaul it in the frame. He and a helper did most of the work with me acting more or less as supervision. New pistons/sleeves, head work done, everything was right. When we tried to start it, THUMP!, didn't make a complete revolution. Backed the engine up about a round, again, THUMP!. After a lot of head scratching we figured it was water on a piston or something. Must have bent one of the brass ferrels or something.

Wasn't anything to do but tear it back down. Pulled the front head and there was the problem, a cloth shop towel neatly folded and laying on top of a piston.

What I didn't find shocked me the most once. I bought an old 3T D7 with a torn up final drive. When I tore it down, every bearing in the final drive was torn up, nothing but the bearing races left. The gear teeth were sharp as a razor but not one tooth was broken and there was only one bearing roller left in the whole case. .....and it had been pushed thru the case and was sticking out the bottom.

We had a tractor come in the shop for a final drive repair on a Cat D4 if I remember right and when the mechanic tried to drain the oil out it didn,t seem to want to run out.It was disassembled and here the owner had a bellows seal leak so he stuffed news paper in the final drive to try to stop or slow down the leaking.The paper ground up and homogenized with the oil and what a mess to clean up the parts after it was disassembled.THat oil was cute looking stuff so if you ever get a final seal leaking that is an easy fix--- HA HA, no not really .

The case of the missing rollers! I have seen a ball bearing or two in high speed machinery with missing balls, just gone...... somewhere

I tore down a IHC truck transmission once, found all the bearing balls on the input shaft on one side of the bearing. The plastic retainers were completely disolved in the oil. Sure don't know what kept the balls in the races, or what kept it together in third gear with that shaft wobbling around.

found a sheet metal screw embedded between two teeth on the second gear in a Jeep transmission. It went thump-thump as it went around. Dug it out, no harm done.

I found one end of a motorcycle fender bolted up to the frame, the other end bolted up to the swinging arm. Made a sort of crinkling sound when it went over a bump.

I always find bolts of every size and grade except the right one in every piece of farm equipment I've ever worked on. Just routine.

Jack

20 years ago I bought a Triumph 650 for parts. The engine would only turn over 300 degrees. I pulled the jugs and found a lifter laying in the crankcase preventing a full revolution. A $150 later and I'm on the road. I still
have the bike.
I've seen a number of engines with peices of wire from a wire wheel breaking
of. One engine in mind had a seized oil pump where the wire went through
the pick-up screen in to the gears.

Found a parts packing paper stopping up the oil pickup tube in a new reman 3208 engine that then only had about 15 min. of run time before it locked up.

Found out the mechanic that installed the engine stuffed the paper in the air compressor to soak up the oil while swaping parks from old engine to the reman. failed to remove paper and installed compressor.

Have found on two 3406E Truck engines the injector height adjuster under the valve covers. Free $100.00 tool any one missing one?

I was working on a wheel loader I think maybe a 938 and it needed a new turbo. I ordered a Cat exchange and removed the protective covers over the ends of the new exchange and installed on the engine. After hooking everything up I started it up and it smoked badly and ran worse, I knew it had to be something with the new turbo. I removed the inlet side of the turbo and looked in at the impeller and it was packed full of confetti. I missed the folded up in a little square Caterpillar special instructions:eek:

I also once installed a hydraulic pump that our hydraulic shop rebuilt, it was in a little bit of a hard location to mount I think it was in a vibratory compactor. I got it in position and mounted and then removed the plastic port cover from the bottom suction side of the pump, hooked up my suction line and the rest of the hoses. Started up the machine and no pressure, after checking several things I noticed the lines were still dry. I pulled the suction line back off and it turned out the pump shop installed duct tape first and then the plastic port cover. I learned to check under all covers after that:D