Lost a tappet locknut, how screwed am I?

[levdir]

Yesterday I adjusted the valves on my bike. Today I heard a ticking coming from the head so I took it over to my friend's garage where I work on it and pulled the tappet covers off to check how they were set. I discovered that the right side intake tappet's locknut was missing. I guess I didn't tighten it enough. I loosened the valve cover to try and locate it and it doesn't appear to be in the right intake valve's oil galleries. Could it have fallen down the timing chain channel? If so, where would it have ended up? Could it get sucked into an oil channel? Would it just drift to the bottom of the crankcase?

 

[xschris]

If it's not in valve area it may be down in the sump. I would pull the cover and look. Then the check the sum screen .

 

[levdir]

I was hoping that might be the case. A lot easier to deal with than fishing around in oil channels with a magnet.