I cleaned the leaves out of the cowl. After I cleaned it the heater was still blowing leaves into the glove box and onto the passenger floor. I removed the blower motor and the glove box to clean it out which involved the use of a vacuum cleaner to suck the leaves out of the plenum from the passenger side and a leaf blower to move the leaves around the plenum so they would blow past the vacuum nozzle. It works 90%. The remaining 10% involved some small twigs, pine needles, and tiny bits of leaves. I fired up the air compressor and blew air around the inside of the plenum to get more of junk out of there. It worked. But, I forgot to turn the vacuum cleaner on this time and blew the remaining debris all over the passenger seat. I'll clean it tomorrow.
When putting the screw back on the blower motor I dropped the 1/4" extension. It rolled under the blower housing. I tried to get it out by had, but it rolled further back. I tried my magenetic pickup tool, but a wiring harness pulled it free from the magnet. I had to remove the wheel well liner and splash shield to get it and cleared 17 years of leaves from the back of that as well and broke a few more plastic clips.
Sometimes I think we need a "What dumb thing did you do today" thread. I would be a top contributor.
I think I posted this once before, but on a regular basis, I use a little fishing line or nylon sewing thread around a tool or through a nut that I know may slip out of my hand and be hard to retrieve.
There are special nuts on the Town Car windshield wiper transmission assembly that are hard to get. They screw on from the bottom side over a big hole that goes to somewhere in Southeast Asia. I slip a fine nylon fishing line or sewing string through the nut when I go to put it on. If I drop it, I just have to pull it back out with this sewing string. But it will still tighten right on the thread, many times without even cutting the string. Then I just nip off the excess.
With the strength in my right hand getting weaker and weaker I’m doing it more and more with some fishing line on wrenches anytime I’m around the engine bay. You don’t have to tie it up every time, you just make a couple loops and loop them around and hold them with your thumb while you’re using the wrench. It sounds like it would be awkward, but did you get used to it pretty quickly.
My two cents, hope it helps