I need good juju right now!

[LongRanger_imp]

Probably a dumb idea, but before you resort to tearing down the engine, perhaps you could pull it out of the frame, flip it over, and give it a few firm love taps. Maybe the shim will find its way out.

[Houtman_imp]

I already tried to neck down a shop vac and fish around with that...

Did this create a strong enough vacuum ?

[Gone in 60]

Popgun, I owe you one. Please send an address to which I can ship a new can of Brasso and a cotton diaper so that it may be lovingly polished with my gratitude.

A shipment I needed for a work project was delayed, so, admittedly I slacked off and spent much of the day studying the curved inner casting of the lower cylinder block from online photos, and imagined the path of travel the dowel would have taken. When I got home from work, I bent a coat hangar to that curve and slid it inside my home made fuel hose magnet tool.

Fifteen minutes of uninterrupted fishing (my wife is stuck in traffic coming home tonight) and I heard the magic click, and up she came.

I danced around listening to Handel’s Messiah which is still playing in my head to this moment. Then, I wiped all of my oily prints off of the machine, covered her and plugged in the tender to await shims and seals. She sleeps, perchance to dream of looser exhaust valves.

The weight of a thousand nightmares of engine disassembly are lifted. I reach for a very special bottle, and my lovely wife will just have to deal with whatever condition with which it renders me

[Desert viper_imp]

That’s excellent news!

[pekingduck]

Are you saying the dowel pin dropped down into the rubber breather hose aft of the cylinders? If so, you're lucky. That breather doesn't go into the crankcase per se.

It goes into the breather passage at at the top of the block, makes a right turn and heads into the breather pipe in the clutch cover. It will be stuck in the breather pipe because it necks down severely.

Pull the clutch cover off, and the breather pipe will come off with it.

[Lord Popgun]

Awesome news! Cellar Master Cormamus please break out libations for all!!

[Retsel_imp]

Great!

[pekingduck]

Great! It's out!
Congratulations!

[the Ferret]

Wow, thats good news Gone

[GoldOxide_imp]

Congratulations Gin60! I know the anguish you endured. I almost lost a tappet screw down the block of a Virago 1100. The hot, humid, mosquito-filled summer night was turgid with curse'ed words and unstoppable sweat. Then, like you, "Klink". The darkness lifted. I found my Precious.