njsteve I can relate to your story oh so well. I had a 1974 NOva which had an older small block without electronic distributor, i.e. points. Well that thing would eat points left and right. One day working on distributor with Dad with said points problems we pulled distributor and at some point I bumped the bolt used to retain dist and it fell into hole. Like you after some words relayed to each other and looks of frustration my Dad came up with a plan. We drained oil from car, then Dad connected a scrap peice of PVC pipe he had to our shop vac suction end sealed with tape that fit dist hole and put it in hole and turned it on. After some moving it around we heard a noise and there she was the lost bolt sucked up into vac. I gained a great deal of respect for Dad that day.
When that engine finally gave it up I replaced it with a used motor from an Impala and learned a lesson that you should replace freeze plugs when it is out. Because they are a lot harder doing so with motor in car (4 total over 6 months).
Todd
