Chain rail piece Missing!
 

I was inspecting all of my chain rails for cracks and wear... when I removed one it came out as only piece not the whole thing. What I was able to pull out is the larger of what I imagine of two pieces. The piece has one complete bolt hole and part of the second(if that makes any sense). I really have know way of knowing if this just happened or if it happened sometime back. I guess what my question is what is the best way to find this piece if it is still there without tearing the whole motor down again. If anybody has some advice please let me know! Mike

Pull of the sump plate and screen, it is probably laying down there. Yours isn't the first to break off and disappear.

left side goes into the sump. right side goes into the chain/sprocket area of the case and gets chewed up. the bits can cause a chain to jump sprocket teeth and break them off and/or cause bent valves.

just disassembled an engine for a customer. two of the left side rails were broken in half and i never found the other pieces. the chain on the l/s scored the idler cam housing and the cam gear from flopping around..

I’ll second what John offered and add a tidbit.
I have seen a few right side where the entire missing piece was stuck between the jackshaft gear and the chain sprocket.

Best,
Grady

Thanks
 

Thanks everyone who posted, I feel a little bit better knowing that it came from the right side and hopefully got ground up. I will still do a little more of a search but if it did come from the right side then the search is limited... If it was broken on the left side then the search would be harder since it could have ended up in the oil sump. Mike