£1.50 piston ring compressor

[kiwidave]

here's one that worked for me again today.

When doing your Evo base gaskets or similar work that involves pulling the jug off, you do not need an expensive Jims or similar tool to compress the piston rings as you attempt (with just the one pair of hands) to slide it back on.

Just to to your local B&Q Depot or similar and buy for about £1.50 the pack of two 70mm-90mm (big) hose clips. My store did not sell them singly.

Apply one in the recommended fashion around the rings.

Tight enough to compress the rings, loose enough to slide off when the jug makes contact on its downwards way. When the jug is almost on the base, just unscrew the hose clip fully and pull it out from among the studs.

Works a treat - apologies to all the old hands who have been using these for 20yrs, etc.

BTW, I have found this combination:

James gaskets/blue Hylomar goo/Hayden Oil-Fix (tm)

to be unbeatable at beating base gasket leaks. 4000 miles and clean so far.

[phssthpok]

;D....nice one.

cheers mate thanks, you know how us scottish folk
AND OUR MONEY HATE TO BE PARTED ;D ;D 8)

And if you have to take the piston off, just get a g-clamp and push the pin out using a 1/2" bolt head against the pin and push into a sleeve made out of a 2 1/2" long piece of 1" pipe. Don't forget to take the circlips out first! To replace, put one circlip in place, warm the piston and put pin in freezer. Take pin out of freezer when well cold and place in piston on the side without the circlip, then push it through with the clamp. Cheap? thats me.
Andrew

whats the problem?
after trying various devices all found not to work?
spoke to kev french (late of big rock) and he told me how the pro's do it
with their fingers!!!
never i thought
so i tried it
lo and behold it works and leaves no scratchs on the piston skirts!!

something that I have found to work thats even cheaper is, get a plastic pop bottle, cut a band out of it about 4 inches wide, split up the side, place around rings, clamp together around rings using 2 cable ties & as you slide the cylinder on, slide the plastic off, the cable ties wont clamp so tight that its hard to slide off & the plastic slides off the piston easily.
Heres to saving money!
Adey.

[S.T.Chapman]

Originally Posted by adey

something that I have found to work thats even cheaper is, get a plastic pop bottle, cut a band out of it about 4 inches wide, split up the side, place around rings, clamp together around rings using 2 cable ties & as you slide the cylinder on, slide the plastic off, the cable ties wont clamp so tight that its hard to slide off & the plastic slides off the piston easily.
Heres to saving money!
Adey. *

just use your fingers adey its so easy ;D

[img] http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/.../bluecrest.gif [/img]
Just got these for a TC 1550 fit, 3/4" wide too, no problem getting all the rings in.

[img]http://groups.msn.com/isapi/fetch.dll?action=MyPhotos_GetMBPhoto&ImageID=n EgAAAA4G*DKbVMLO50EIJWh8ynkNCKTH*6G2oYabiKeKwQKXaF HD4A[/img]

Quite expensive (£7.50 each) Anybody want to borrow one for the price of the postage, then post it back... ;)

h.h.®

he told me how the pro's do it
with their fingers!!!


He's right too.Doddle of a job,even on multis

Yea, but when you haven't done it before I'd like to be sure when I'm that far in.

Waste of money maybe, peace of mind definitely... ;)

h.h.®