I know this!! But. I still need help. The rear end oil was a little low and I squeezed some in - along with the plastic cap. Plastic!!!
Oh crumb. Look in there with a light. If you are real lucky, it is one that floats. If not, it is at the bottom and you will have to get creative with some wire and fish it out.
Let us know what happens.
Bill, if you can see it, try going to a kitchen store and buy a pickle puller. Might have another name.
If you do not know what I am talking about, Google 'pickle puller' or something like that.
It looks like a needle syringe with prongs that come out when your thumb depresses it.
Bob
If it is a regular rear end, not a ruckstell, then would a soft plastic top really cause any long term harm?
If you cat't fish it out, then what harm can it do?
Robert -- I never heard those called a pickle puller. We always called them a nose picker.
Mike - wrong end of the body!
I wouldn't worry about it.
Go to sears or a place that sales tools and get a long O-Ring pick. Mac tools, Snap-on and such has a nice long pick, one end has a 90 degree and a straight end and is about 10 inches long and super sharp ends for punchering. I use mine 100 different ways.
I'd try stiff wire or a piece of welding rod with a hook on the end.
Tony's question about long term harm reminds me of when the oil companies put a foam disc under the caps of the plastic oil bottles. The question came up as to what should be done if one dropped such a disc into the engine when putting oil in. The general consensus was the foam was soft and would not cause any harm. This discussion came up after I had the misfortune of dropping on in my engine with out my knowledge (the engine of my T craft would use about a half a quart between changes, so I would only add half and save the rest for the next) The second time when you would remove the cap, sometimes the disc would stick to the bottle neck. The way I discovered I had a problem was when I lost oil pressure just after take off, and when I reduced throttle, the engine stopped dead. With out a starter, this meant that I was going down quickly. When we took the oil system apart, we found the remains of the foam in the pressure relief valve, this had gotten stuck when the oil was still cool, and as it heated up on take off, the amount of oil that was by passed was enough to drop the oil pressure to zero.
The moral of the story is, if something is where is should not be, there is always the potential that it can cause harm, but even so, I tend to agree with Tony in this case, it may cause some mild damage to the gears as it is being ground up, but no more than using plastigauge in an engine.
I would think that if that cap got caught in the gears, it would soon be ground up into fine power and not cause any harm. If it is metal, though, a different story.
Norm
The plastic cap is probably far less damaging than what is usually found in old rear ends, like dirt, water and old babbitt. I wouldn't worry about it.
Ditto. But I'd still give it a half-hearted shot.
Don't need to turn your T upside down, just ship your T to Australia and it will fall out.
About 65 years ago I did turn my T almost up-side-down to get a nut out of the tranny. I took the body off and used a series of different length polls to tip the chassis about 310 degrees...It worked. I still cringe when I think that I crawled under there too retrieve the nut
You do what you gotta do, I suppose...
Do not try this at home!!
Mark, how else do you weld up a gas tank?
Hey Hal,
Rather than turning your T 310 degrees, you should have gone 50 degrees in the other direction
My plastic cap that fell into the rear end has caused no problems. I drive one of my Ts almost every day- unless I drive my exceptionally rare 1953 split-window VW Bug. My 911 Porsche was doing 130+ when I looked at the speedometer. Sold the sucker. Get MANY more smiles at 28 mph.
Mark, that is really dangerous! That guy should have a brick in front of the wheel as well as behind.
WoW I'd be scared that would fall on my welder....!
7;^{)
What could go wrong?
Guys ...
Allow me a moment to show my gratitude for the air and attitude youzalls bring to the T "scene".
Through my other car interests, I am perpetually faced with forever fouteen-year-old guys, beating their chests and sticking their noses in the air over horsepower ratings, red and white paint jobs, ridiculously overpriced optional equipment, and generally gratuitous, "look-at-me" parading and posing.
This crew seems well grounded and more likely to poke fun at themselves or their cars than not. It is a fun and welcoming place to be. Thanks.
Oh yeah, Burger, my T has more original rust than yours!
A few years ago, I went with some friends for a drive in the mountains with my 1942 Ford GPW. We picked up a couple of guys with modern jeeps on the way. After having a picnic on the other side of the mountain, my friend said he though he would head down the mountain rather than going back over the top as he had difficulty with vapor locking. On of his friends with the new jeep said he would go down too as he did not have very good tires, he had been talking about how he had made a modification to his carb that gave him 50 more HP just moments before. I said I would lead the others back over the top, and he looked at my jeep with the stock military tires and the load I had (4 people and one weighing close to 400 lbs as well as a dog) He asked me if I had a locking rear end, I told him "no" then he said I must have limited slip diffs as all jeeps had that. I told him that no jeeps I knew of came with limited slip diffs. At that point, his ego got the better of him and he had to go back over the top with us. As we were going up, I parked and walked back down to where I knew he would have trouble, and sure enough he was spinning his wheels unable to go any further. I asked him what gear he was in, he said first low. I told him to put it in second and keep his foot off the throttle. He managed to make it to the top and he asked why second would work when first would not. I explained that he had too much horsepower for his vehicle and that all he could do was spin his wheels, and that my jeep only had 50 hp at sea level and that was the best power to weight ratio for steep grades.
Sometimes less is more.
The plastic parts lost in the rear end reminds me of a true story many years ago that happened to a friend of mine. He was prowling around an old barn that had a Model T buried in the back. He decided to check if the rear end had 3:1 gears in it so he removed the 1/2 plug and stuck his index finger inside to see if he could tell whether the ring gear was different. Well, his finger got stuck and the more he pulled the more it swelled. He was all alone with no help. Finally he figured the only solution was to "unscrew" himself! He managed to finally unscrew his finger out. I saw him shortly after the ordeal and his finger did look like it had been stuck in a threaded hole. I forgot to ask him if he every figured out if the rear end had 3:1 gears.
Hey Larry, I am glad I am not the only idiot to pull that stunt, although I stuck my finger into the hole in my wife's MGB steering wheel spoke, there were no threads to help me out, but I was able to reach behind and push as I pulled, my wife offered no help but to laugh at me.