[themossman]

Jhart-

Look at what I was able to 'dig up' last night....

Turns out there is a baffle in the oil pan...so I couldn't use a pen magnet to get it up, nor could I use a magnet on the sides of the pan and drag it to the top. The 'hole' in the baffle is right in the center...so I had to figure something out.

So...I tied a nut to a length of twine and used a flexible grapple tool to drop the nut into the bottom of the pan. I then used a magnet to drag the nut in front of the oil drain plug. I then CAREFULLY inserted the grapple tool in through the drain plug and got a hold of the string and pulled a loop through the drain plug (nut still in oil pan). I tied another string to the first one and then pulled the nut and with new string attached back through. Now I had a single piece of string threaded from the timing cover down through the drain plug...this only took about an hour...lol.

Then, at the timing cover, I tied a magnet to the string and attached another string...so I now had a magnet between two strings between the timing cover and the oil plug. With my wife 'operating' the top part of the string and me working the bottom...we got the magnet into the base of the oil pan. I then used another magnet to drag the tensioner piece to my 'fishing magnet'. It took us about three or four tries but we eventually got the booger out topside. When my wife saw it you would have though she had won the lottery!

Thanks for you assistance and coaching!