It should match the stud nut that holds your air cleaner cover on...

 

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It looks like a breather bolt. There are 2 of them. The rubber breather hoses go over the end and the other end goes into the Air filter.
Ratkiller

 

Dang Night Train, I feel dumber than a bag of hammers for not knowing that nugget information.

 

that doesn't look like a breather bolt. the breather bolts have a round nipple on the end for the hose to slip onto.

i would just be glad it didn't get shook into the throttle blade holding the thottle wide open or worse finding its way to the intake valve..


PS.. on big jobs we've always said you didn't do the job right unless you have parts left over.. manufactures always use way to many bolts, nuts, screws and clips to a simple job.

 

A good mechanic always has parts leftover!

 

is this on a sporty? if so, (and thats what it looks like) there are two of them that bolt thru the backing plate to the heads

 

I believe like kdeuce its a breather bolt that someone used to convert to a one sided system. (normal factory breather bolts have a hole in them. Is you bike stock? It could have been kicked up off the road and came through back side of breather. If it had gone through intake that would have been bad. I use to keep an extra $50. in there just in case I run out of gas. When it happened I opened it up and found out I had already spent it. Last person that worked on it may have been looking for more business. Who worked on it last?

 

The last person to work on it would have been the dealer who performed the 5k maintenance before I purchased it. Someone asked if it is a sportster and it's not... It's a softail springer 05. The bolt does not have a hole thru it so it's not a breather bolt. The parts man at dealer has no idea what it was but said it was good it didn't get sucked up into intake. Couldn't have come from the road because it was inside the filter. Weird.

 

it looks like a ground stud...check your ground wires...

 

Got my curiosity up. Was it in the filter or just the plastic back cover. my old back cover is hanging on the wall and there is plenty of room for that to bounce in. However if it was in the filter itself your dealer was trying to generate some work or it was an accident and just fell in the filter while on the mechanic's bench. Either one would have me looking for another dealer since it's one of the things in life that you can not accuse someone of unless you see them do it.