piston rings

[BuddyB]

Make sure the ring gap is correct on the new rings. There isnt a whole lot of room for error, as its an air cooled motor and things will expand more than a water cooled motor, and be sure to measure at a few different spots in the bore. A pinched ring will bring you back to where you are at now, but worse. Almost all that I have had to deal with have needed some clearancing done.

PS. In case Cooter offers to help and bring his ring file, keep in mind that the amount of beer he drinks will far exceed the price of the ring file.

Well, the gap is within the SM specs, so are you saying' I should go a bit larger?

[BuddyB]

As for the beer, I think that a case a jug is an appropriate barter for such knowledge and tool.

[Cooter]

Well, the gap is within the SM specs, so are you saying' I should go a bit larger?

No. The SM spec is correct. He is saying it is just typically a wider spec in an air cooled engine than a H2O one.

[34nineteen]

Well, the gap is within the SM specs, so are you saying' I should go a bit larger?

No, just make sure to measure them carefully and at a couple of different spots in the bore. The SM spec should be OK, but on the other hand I can call out more than a few misprints in the SM.

Since an aircooled motor runs at a wider range of temperatures, parts will expand and contract more than a liquid cooled model.

Don't assume the factory has it right, especially when you have the parts in your hands and they're easy to check at this point... and the penalty for failure is high.

[Cooter]

Wait a sec.

You mean I shouldn't be torquing my o-ringed drain plug into an aluminum hole, to 26 FOOT pounds!? I'm not dumb! It's what the manual said! I had a foot on the swingarm and a breaker bar to tighten it "properly to spec" and....

[34nineteen]

Its even more awesome when the SM refers you to a page in the book that doesnt exist. Thats probably the most common error in the book.

[Cooter]

No read, no problem.

[BuddyB]

Alright, here is the update to my ongoing sitcom...

So I have honed and replaced rings on both cylinders, (being careful to check gaps) and went about the f..ing procedure to put the pistons back into the cylinders. You don't want to know what I'm thinking at this point... I bought a ring compressor from O'Reilly that could be dis assembled because the piston had to be inserted from the bottom of the jug. So the ring compressor needs to be able to be dis assembled after the rings are up into the cylinder. The idea is great but the actual function of this particular ring compressor left much to be desired. I at firs had to cut a bit of material from the tool so I could maneuver it while the engine was dropped.

So the front cylinder went somewhat okay... I think. It took me like four or five tries to get the cylinder down over the rings with no problems. Very much bad words.

The rear cylinder was a nightmare. I could not get the rings to go into the jug using the compression tool at all. I ended up finding a very thick piece of plastic and used a 4 inch hose clamp. I lubricated the plastic and the rings, and made my own ring compressor. It worked.... so I hope. I am now at the point of starting the put together process. Iwill update.