Does anyone experience this.

Your searching for a wrench and you just used it 5min ago, you go to the toolbox and dig around,nothing.
So you search around your car and all around the ground, still nothing.
So you go back to the toolbox and look AGAIN. This time you really hunt for it.
Still no luck.
Then you check a couple other places. Now its getting irritating.
You go back to the toolbox cause you've run out of places to look and then somehow the wrench just shows up and you looked their a million times.

Just curious if anyone goes through this. Because I do everytime I go and work on my car. (My toolbox isn't very big and I haven't been drinking.)

Waive

EVERY DAMN TIME! Especially when I'm in a hurry!

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I try to keep a good set of tools and crummy set handy just for that occasion. What really makes me mad is loosing my beer!

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Steve Strasemeier (70SS)

I recently changed the thermostat in my Chevy truck and found a 9/16" socket sitting inside the engine.

That poor guy never did find his lost tools.

One more for my toolbox!



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Bob

Bob's 409 Chevy Page

http://silverstone.fortunecity.com/tvr/246/bob_s_409_chevy_page_index.html

I quit drinking about 7 years ago and it still happens (having tools hide from me that is)!!

The tools must think it's funny.

Heck, I don't beat on them. Maybe I should.

Wes.

I thought it only happened to me, I swear tools just walk away sometimes. I put a leash on my beer 'cause that seem to run away never to be found.

[This message has been edited by 1bad67 (edited 02-24-99).]

thought I was the only one,glad to see I have company, spent all day changing a cam, putting tools away was missing a 9/16 wrench after a couple hours and a trunk full of beers decided to pull the intake back off, the only place I didn't look, wasn't there! believe my I tryed to look in the dist. hole with mirrors,lights, quess where it was? in my pocket! never put tools in my pockets, my wife said, that should of been the first placed I looked, I probably would of if I would of been sober, still think it was those damm tool gremlins.

a customer came in for some scheduled maintenance thing, @30k, and when i popped the hood, well gollee, there was my 1x1 1/4 "snap daddy" sitting on the intake from when, as near as i could figure, i did an ac repair at 24k. made me wonder when anybody looked. gee, 6k miles that thing was just riding around.

I have seen fires at the race track and when the put it out they find a rag that was left on the engine. At least the sockets don't catch on fire.

Let's be carefull out there. You don'y want to burn up your car because of something that was avoidable.

Michael

My wife thinks I am a damn idiot when I get irritated over these kinds of things. She thinks I am the only person on the planet that gets upset when this happens. She won't believe me, so I just now had her read all of the above. She won't admit I'm right, she just got up and walked in the other room. She also doesn't say anything when I work on her 70 conv, just when I work on my cars! It's OK to yell when HER car busts my knuckles. Also, she will fetch and get me a coke when I am working on her car. Man you should have seen her when I was building the new sb400 for it. When I'm working on my cars,-------------where is everybody?

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Has anyone experienced Newton's fourth law of motion? That's the one that states that any tool dropped while working on your car must fall beneath the car and come to rest at the exact physical center of the car so that you must get on your stomach and crawl on the ground to retrieve it.

I know the problem very well. You can never have enough 9/16, 1/2 sockets or combo. wrenches. When one walks off, I just go get another one.

I've had a couple experiences leaving wrenches under the hood - one funny and one pretty scary. The funny one was making a left turn on to a freeway ramp in my '68 and hearing this familiar "ting-ting-ting" sound fading. After about 10 seconds - too late to pull over or turn back - I realized that I just lost my 1/2 in. Craftsman open end wrench that I had left under the hood. Luckily, I stopped back after work and there it was at the side of the ramp.

The scary event was pulling out of a parking lot and on to the highway in my '69, getting on it a little, and then having the steering lock up on me. I managed to slow her down and pull over just in time. This time, it was my 3/8 in. Snap-on ratchet that I left under the hood. It got wedged against the steering column and locked it up. I could have shot myself after that one.



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Rainer
'68 SS396
'70 LS3 400 Malibu
rseitz@pacifier.com

The big problem I have is keeping a 16 yr old kid out of my tools never puts any thing back.If he does he never puts it where it should be so I think its lost and go looking where he used it last,time wasted its in the tool box he says,when I do find it it's in the wrong drawer. So for Christmas he got hes own tool box, sockets,and box ends so far so good.We'll see how long it lasts.I have the same problem as everyone else don't need help...FRED

Common occurence. Little known fact is that the little gnomes that hide your keys, glasses etc. also hide your tools and steal just one sock out of your dryer.
kevin d

I'm really glad that all of you guys are just like me - too bad for you. I always experience Newton's Fourth Law as Randy puts it. I was however the beneficiary of several S/K tools when after about two weeks of trying to figure out what those little clicks were every time my 71 came to a stop. After tightening every bolt on my front clip - and it still clicking - I pulled the left fender extensions off and found 3 deep sockets, a 3-inch extension and a 3/8-inch ratchet. They were stuck between the extension and the core support. Feeling good I put it back together but still had the clicks. Pulled the right extension and found 2 screwdrivers and some pliers. I even thought about pulling off the fenders to see if I could find a torque wrench.

[This message has been edited by Kevin (edited 02-25-99).]

Kevin,

That is one magical car you have there, what with tools propagating inside your front clip. Too bad it doesn't produce money in the glove box. Instead, it sucks money through the tank! http://www.chevelles.com/forum/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by michael j (edited 02-25-99).]

Randy's comment about Newton's fourth law makes me think that there may also be a fifth (unwritten) law.

Most of the time I wear glasses and it seems that when working under the car, anything that drips will go straight for the eye. Even if looking straight up (when you think the drip would hit your glasses), the drip will go around the glass, then into your eye.

Is it a "high gravity value" type thing?

Wes. Vann

My tools are always getting lost because I "hide them from myself". I seem to put them in the damndest places because I sit them down wherever convenient when looking for something else that's lost. Keep swearing not to do that again, but do anyway. I don't lose track of beers very often because they don't last long enough to get lost. von

Yes, tools definitely disappear. If you watch closely from the corner of your eye, you can see the little gremlins that take them and later bring them back. Errrr - perhaps it's the beer !

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Ahhhh BEER! Friend of children everwhere. Is there nothing it can't do?

Wes V is right on. I think this unique force should be investigated. And I should be given a government grant for a 5yr period to investigate it. And I'm sure I will need one of those $20,000 hammers that the government buys.

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Working in a shop one day, opened the hood and found an 11/16 Mac shorty comb wrench. Asked around the shop, no one had one missing. So, in my box it went. Later inspection showed the initials WS engraved in it. Didn't know anyone with those initials. Time passed, so did the shop, owner sold it. Working in another shop now and asked one of the guys there if he needed any tools from the Mac guy. He says, "Yes, I need an 11/16 shorty combo wrench, I lost mine awhile ago". Hmmmm, his name is Wayne, last initial S. Could it be? Well, sure enough! The one I found while working in a different shop across town the previous year ended up being his. So being the nice guy I am, I gave it to him. He almost fell over when I pulled it out of my tool box and told him how I got it.

Gotta agree with Von about the beer, tho, they don't sit anywhere too long in my garage. Usually down in a gulp or two.

My garage doesn't steal from me, it just likes to hide things from me. People ask me why I leave stuff out in the middle of the floor, well, it's so I know where it is! The garage will hide something else to get even.I did teach it not to mess with my beer: I let it know there's a chainsaw in the basement!! I don't have problems with tools because I haven't forgot how much they cost and who will have to pay to replace them. Even if I'm dog tired I will at least throw the tools into a big bucket and put them away later. (ONE bucket wise guys!!)

Would that be a 3500 pound bucket, Tom?

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Rainer
'68 SS396
'70 LS3 400 Malibu
rseitz@pacifier.com

Whatever it takes!!

I'm glad to see this post. I was mad at my kids and half my friends because my 18" adjustable was missing. I looked for a couple of months, one day I had to flip the peg board around to the other side where the sockets are and there it hung. Noboby would admit to putting it there. Do you guys have trouble keeping both socks together when they come back from the wash? And of course nobody smoked pot in high school did they? I didn't inhale? http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by Rick Loncosky (edited 02-28-99).]

[This message has been edited by Rick Loncosky (edited 03-08-99).]

How could you loose an 18'foot ajustable I even never seen one. I did...FRED

I have always chalked up the missing tools that somehow re-appear to a personal Black Hole that is just behind me at all times,but just out of my sight. I turn it disappears,
I turn back it re-appears.I guess I'm not the only one with that problem.Thats kind of
reassuring,in a weird way.

Saw a show once that explained this entire problem. Seems that durring every second of a persons life that there are these "Behind the Scenes" people that setup the stage of life as we move through it. Sometimes they get so busy between our concience moments that they "forget" to include all items in the scene. That wrench that you just used isn't lost, they forgot to put it there for the next scene( or second). Just step back and stop looking,it will be back in couple minutes! At least that was what the show said..or was that a Star Trek or Twilight Zone show...

Not only does my short term memory short out when it comes to tools, but I also have a long term memory problem with car parts. I can look for weeks for something I know that I saved, it's not until I buy the replacement part that I soon find it. OH Yeah, that's where I put it! Or how about the expression... Damn!, I knew I should'nt have thrown that out, now I need it! NEVER FAILS!

Not only does my short term memory short out when it comes to tools, but I also have a long term memory problem with car parts. I can look for weeks for something I know that I saved, it's not until I buy the replacement part that I soon find it. OH Yeah, that's where I put it! Or how about the expression... Damn!, I knew I should'nt have thrown that out, now I need it! NEVER FAILS!

I'm glad to see that so many of us have this same problem, because I'm not alone.

Yes I also experience this parts problem mentioned above.
thanks guys for expressing your encounters and not allowing me to feel left out in this "Star Trek or Twilight Zone scene".

waive
69 SS/396 >.060

Wow, when I saw this post, I had dejavu all over again. I just spent about 45 minutes looking for my little 5/16" box end that I had used about an hour ago. Granted, it's not the biggest wrench but when you have looked everywhere it could possibly be, the only reasonable explanation I can agree w/ is the behind-the-scenes-people. I'll be generous and give 'em till tomorrow to return my wrench or I'm gonna get pissed.

Do you think if you catch one of them, it would be like a leprechaun where you could get a wish (or maybe some of your tools back) if you let them go?

Does anyone remember the Canadian Tire ad a few years back where the guy puts down his wrench, it falls down & goes on a wild adventure halfway across town, only to end up in the mouth of the guy's golden retriever, who hands it back to him exactly when he needs it? I must get me one of those dogs!

I think some of you guys may have my tools; so if you would please return them!
Luke

I have found the solution to Newtons 4th law (or was it Murphy's.....he he) of tools falling and going to the center of the car on the ground. I have a buddy with me when I work on cars at all times. Actually, I start off with all of my tools under the car (in the middle of course) and have my buddy hand them to me as I need them or drop them. All he has to do in the meantime is consume Budweiser. As far as disappearing items, I once left my Mag-Lite in the cubby hole of the fender next to the radiator support. I went cruising around one night and when I stood on the loud pedal I heard a few pings and thunks. I looked in the rearview mirror only to see a flashlight going end over end ( I guess the impact jarred the switch on the flashlight). I stopped and went back to pick it up and it was fine (except for those damn scratches).

Johnny

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A perfect place for losing tools is to leave them near the cowl area!
I just painted the "vents" and upon removing them, what did I find? All my missing 9/16's and 1/2 combs! Better watch that cowl intake to the the vents!!!
Phil

A guy I know rebuild a small block and shortly after starting it up the oil pressure would drop for no apperent reason. Stop the engine for a while, start it up agian there was pressure for a short while then nothing. His little kid pulled the pan of for him and came over and said, hey dad wasn't this the rag you were looking for the other day?