experiance helps

[grumpyvette]

have a buddy that stopped by to have me look at a problem with his honda, now I generally won,t poke a honda with a sharp stick, but hes a nice guy and needs help, we traced the problem to a partly clogged fuel filter,(orriginal and hes got 100K on the car) and I suppose some 120 pound double jointed guy from japan was the morron who decided to locate the fuel filter, up above the steering/suspension and down behind the engine and under the master cylinder where its bolted into a bracket and all the hot engine parts and you can barely see it without a shop light and requires a crowsfoot wrench and a 2 ft extention to reach it from below the car, naturally theres special bolt thats cross drilled and hollow that fastens the filter to the fuel rails and it requires two copper o-rings and standing on your head to get access.....and naturaly the bolt faLLS , but fails to fall thru to the floor and its wedged where it can,t be seen, well after looking for the little S.O.B. for 15 minutes with magnets and mirrors and several shop lights its no place to be found and we can,t continue without it, my friend says well just order a new one in the morning.....B.S. that suckers there I just can,t see it, so I do what any experianced mechanic would do, I crank both air compressors up to max pressure and get the air hose with a long spray nozzle,and put on my safety goggles and start shooting high pressure air into every area on the frame and suspension....well in no time Ive got a very dry, clean engine compartment and the bolt that was missing comes flying out of some crevis it was hiddening in onto the shop floor and in about 10 more minutes work the cars up and running.....see! thats were experiance and persistance pays, you know that theres several ways to find drop bolts

[johnc]

and put on my safety goggles

 

That's really the only part of the post that speaks to experience.