I recently pulled the pan off of my Desoto Hemi to clean it up and install some new gaskets. While cleaning the thick old oil outt'a the bottom and looking for metal parts that shouldn't be there I found a Snap On 1/2 inch swivel socket. I looked up Snap On to see when they started and their site said 1920, which surprised me, I didn't realize they had been around so long. To my knowledge the motor has never been out of the car so this was puzzling. I checked out the motor and I am pretty sure its not possible to drop it from up top and have it end up in the pan. Its in perfect condition so I ruled that out. I have deduced that this was accidentally dropped into the pan at the factory. There is a pan just below the crank and above the oil pan that has four 1/2 inch bolt holding it on. The oil pan bolts are also 1/2 inch. So, thats my theory. What do you think? Oh, the good news is no other metal was in the pan and I used the 58 year old tool to re***emble the pan and such.
Go over to the GarageJournal and post this. They'll not only get a kick out of it, but those guys will be able to tell you the age of the tool by the code/part number on it. I'm jealous. I popped the oil pan off a low mile 264 Nailhead that had never been apart (except for valve covers and intake manifold), and found half a pushrod. The engine was a runner and had a full set of pushrods, all it's original rocker arms, etc. Can't imagine how it would have busted. They just pulled out the part they could reach, left the other half in the bottom of the pan, replaced it and sent the driver down the road. -Brad
At least they didn't tie a note on it telling you to be glad you finally found that damned rattling noise -
That's awesome! Post a pic, if you can. My buddy had the opposite happen to him, he dropped a box-end wrench into his exhaust collector and couldn't get it out. Two years later, the motor blew. We decided to split the exhaust pipe before the cat and never found the wrench.
Date chart here: http://collectingsnapon.com/Site/datechart-680.html Site also has lots of other information.
Cool story... My brother left a screwdriver under the intake of a 327 once.... Stayed under the pushrods and never made noise. No one ever knew it was there until he blew that motor some time later and had to dis***emble it... and there was the screwdriver, with a perfect groove carved around the handle... Your story is still way better though.... Let us know how old that thing is....
Reminds me of the stories of ***embly line folks hanging left over lunch stuff in door panels...2 weeks later the new car smell was...ahhh...unique.
Neat-o!! I like that story!! Yeah, I found part of a rod in mine and what looked like part of a CHICKEN BONE!! ??? Keep that socket FOREVER!!
I took the oil pan off of on of my 303s because it had a whole in the bottom, and there was a nasty smell coming from it...pulled it off looked in there...And guess what I found? 5 dead mice stiffer than hell and not really mouseish any more, I think they crawled in and couldn't crawl back out...I wish I would have found a swivel socket...I could have used one.
Amazeing what you can find in an old mill. I pulled a B/RB down for a younger friend of mine. He'd had it since High School. He loved telling this story of how him and a buddy changed the cam so he could go raceing and just as they were getting ready to ****on it up a june bug flew right down into the lifter valley. I always thought it was a joke. Anyway long story short when I pull it down I find this big ***ed june bug stuck to the strainer screen for the oil pump pickup. It now resides in a plexi covered cigar box on my buddy's fire place mantle. Ol' motors are cool, ya just never know.
A friend of mine tore down his 390 FE Ford and found two oil pump drive shafts in the oil pan. If you know FEs, you know that it is not that uncommon though.
Hey, did you live in Plains, Texas? cause I was fixin to tell this story when I ran across your post! I had this happen to a friend of mine. He let his younger brother put the intake back on his 55 chevy and later found a screwdriver in it after it blew. I bought a new 4wd suburban back in 89 and found a 2" long 1/4" extension sticking in a boss on the throttle body. It now resides in my tool box and I remember where I found it everytime I use it.
Well, it possible. Im probably the most serious snap on collector over on garagejournal.com. A 1/2" universal socket (is it 3/8 or 1/2" drive?) from 50-60 years ago is a pretty common socket, just not inside an oil pan! But as for the above scenerao, its unlikely. This era's sockets were the transition from a hole drilled in one side of the drive end, to 4 recesses milled inside the square drive (I'l need to see a pic of that date code to tell for sure what year the socket is), but industrial sockets (not ID'd by lacking or presence of chrome finish like todays snap on tools) would have definately had the single hole. The drive tools used at the factory had pin type socket retainers, instead of friction balls. This required a small punch or pick to depress the pin in to remove the socket. This kept sockets from being lost on the lines, and since there was little need to change a socket, other than if it broke, due to the repe***iveness on the ***embly line, the retaining pin didnt slow the operator down (They dont work well foe a mechanic!) If you can tell me if there is a retaining gole, or inside milled recesses in the drive end, the drive size, the date code, and the part number, I can give you more info.
Drivin down the road one night my Olds-powered 31 Tudor locked in gear. Nothing I did would kick it loose. 50 Merc sideshift ******.....ran it up on a hoist at my buddy's gas station, pulled the cover...there was a small Phillips screwdriver (plastic handle) jammed in between the gears. Was able to force the rear wheel in opposite direction and remove it. No idea how long that thing bounced around in there before it finally found that spot. dj
In about 1973 a coworker in Waco was checking the customer complaint list on a new car in for warranty work and one of the things was "rattle in p***enger door" He checked and sure enough the door rattled. He pulled the door panel and discovered a 1/2 inch impact wrench, took it out and no more rattle. He then wrote rattle checked and repaired on the ticket and put the impact in his tool box.
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