dipstick hijacked

Well I think so anyway.
After picking the terra up from Canberra where I had the ECU sent off for re flash I spent a couple of days riding the Brindebella area which was just fantastic. After day 1 I thought id better check the oil even though it has never used any with 50k Km on it now. I had to use pliers to get it loose which I thought strange as I never tighten it that much and do regularly check the oil level.

I found the dipstick has broken at the max mark and no sign of the 65mm or so piece of plastic.After much thought I reckon somebody flogged mine and replaced with their broken one at some stage because how would it break just sitting in the oil tank.Im really careful screwing that thing in as Ive read they can cross thread easily

Now Im kinda ok with that Ill just get a new one but
what if it did break and that piece of plastic ends up limiting my oil flow somewhere in the plumbing?
The bike runs so much better after the reflash I want to keep it forever now Id really appreciate some thoughts as to how I could find the piece if it is in there somewhere

You could try disconnecting all the oil lines around the oil tank drain plug and see if it pops out at all. Remove also the nylon filter.

sounds like a good idea
Im happy there seems to be a filter there where is the nylon filter please?

Which is the far more likely scenario!
Search the threads here and on ADV for broken dipstick and you'll find a few early posts about exactly this issue.
The reason we used to chop them off and replace with alumminium-extensions or zip-ties or such.
http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/need-to-know-the-length-of-the-dipstick.87251/

http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/chassis-oil-filter.70434/#post-508301

there's a mesh filter in the frame at the bottom of the oil tank so if it broke off inside the tank, it cannot get into the engine. That filter should be taken out and cleaned every now and then (20k km i think) anyway so you may want to check next oil change.

http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/oil-change-drama.30550/

i have replaced the original o-ring on the dipstick with a thicker one. The original o-ring is too thin and gets pushed into the frame opening and jams the dipstick which makes it so difficult to remove. The thicker o-ring prevents that and it's much easier to unscrew the dipstick.

great thanks for all that I reckon its time that filter had a clean out too