Valve shim fell somewhere in the cylinder head or crankcase... :(

[Ironhand]

Ugh, congrats on finding it. Reading your first few posts made me feel a little sick.

 

[Chuck B]

Reminds me of a tech day I attended back in 1998. It was for the Honda Valkyrie. Guy was doing a valve adjustment and you'd think little chance of causing an issue with a screw type adjuster (no shim) and a head that is horizontal. This poor guy thought he needed to remove the locking nut and then had it slip out of his fingers and somehow managed to get knocked into an oil return hole that is horizontal and only about 14mm wide. That stupid 10mm nut ended up in the sump. The following day a couple of us pulled the engine, got it up on a work bench, tilted it side ways and began the slow process of getting that nut close enough to an oil return to get a magnet on it. All in all it was nearly 10hr with three of us working on it. At least he didn't have to split the cases...THAT would not have been fun OR cheap!

 

[WJBertrand]

Reminds me of a tech day I attended back in 1998. It was for the Honda Valkyrie. Guy was doing a valve adjustment and you'd think little chance of causing an issue with a screw type adjuster (no shim) and a head that is horizontal. This poor guy thought he needed to remove the locking nut and then had it slip out of his fingers and somehow managed to get knocked into an oil return hole that is horizontal and only about 14mm wide. That stupid 10mm nut ended up in the sump. The following day a couple of us pulled the engine, got it up on a work bench, tilted it side ways and began the slow process of getting that nut close enough to an oil return to get a magnet on it. All in all it was nearly 10hr with three of us working on it. At least he didn't have to split the cases...THAT would not have been fun OR cheap!

Seems like it would have been simpler to pull the sump pan?

 

[becoyote]

Glad it worked out for you! ::015::