Topic: Piston Ring Compressor for Inline Fours?

[HondaMan]

Weren't the genuine Honda tool for holding the pistons upright much thicker Mark, I seem to recall them holding 2-3 right at the top of their stroke and just sliding under the skirt, seem to recall they were around 3/4" or thereabouts thick and just a slotted U shape.

The ones we got from Honda (back then) were like big, curved Vise-Grips with a spring holding them closed. The aftermarket ones I have (somewhere around here) look much like them. They are awkward to use unless the engine is raised up quite a bit higher than frame-level, and I have mis-installed one of the thin oil ringlets (as pictured in my book) and bent it when using them: that was when I got tired of struggling with them and built the ones shown above. They work far better.

[Don R]

  I made two ring compressors out of an old sleeve sliced into 1" rings and split into two pieces, held with a hose clamp they worked good until one got away from me and fell into the engine. Magnet fishing time.
  Well, that was enough of that silliness.

[Oddjob]

No I meant the piston holders for holding them upright, not the ring compressors which were like wrist exercisers, Charles Atlas designed those I think. The piston holders were slabs of metal in an elongated U shape with a slot of the rod to slide through.

[Dime]

Here's the ring tools, CB750 size.
The notches clear the cylinder studs and hold the piston stabilizers (that's all I can think of to call them?) in position while you fiddle things around.
The bars sit under the pistons to hold them square to the bores and cases.
They are about 3/4" wide, 0.040" thick brass strip from Ace Hardware (K&N Brass).

They are shown as they would be installed: #4 on the left and #1 on the right, as you will be facing the engine.
The 2 outside ones (#4 and #1) are flat because it's easy to get your fingers in to remove them (last), while the 2 inner ones (#3 and #2) have little bent tabs to help your fingertips or needle-nose pliers to nab them for removal after the rings are in the bores.

This is great. Thank you

[HondaMan]

No I meant the piston holders for holding them upright, not the ring compressors which were like wrist exercises, Charles Atlas designed those I think. The piston holders were slabs of metal in an elongated U shape with a slot of the rod to slide through.

I think you're right about Charles Atlas, Designer! The old ones I still have are real hard to remove from the 1-4 cylinders after the 2-3 are in place because you must fully open them against their hefty springs, which is almost impossible with my bad right hand.

I first made the U-shaped piston supports from brass but found them hard to use because they would slide down against the rod and then the top end could get caught down inside the crankcase, making them real hard to remove. Making the top end of the "U" longer could fix that, except the materials needed for that were not readily available, nor cheap (the latter being important to me...). So, I made the 1-sided ones pictured above, instead. With their little notches that slide around the cylinder studs: they don't move out of place while fiddling around with the rings. They sort of lock onto the studs once positioned, which made the bent end of the 2-3 parts necessary because needle-nosed pliers are needed to reach in under the lowered cylinders to unlock them after ring assembly. Then they are simple to slide out without falling into the crankcases.

[Medyo Bastos]

Yeah i have a set under my bed, i only used 2 because 4 didn’t make since once 2/3 were in the sleeves





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[HondaMan]

Yeah i have a set under my bed, i only used 2 because 4 didn’t make since once 2/3 were in the sleeves





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Those look just like mine!

[Oddjob]

Now you know who robbed you Mark 

[HondaMan]

They LOOK like a good idea, but they are too 'deep' in actual use underneath the cylinders. While I thought about trying to cut down their height somewhat, it would take at least a mill to accomplish it (which I don't have). That's when I spent a few hours rethinking it. In the "old days" we had some real nice band-clamps that were sorta like hose clamps with liners in them, and those liners were flexible stainless steel that reminded me of feeler gages, about 0.005" thick or so, They were the inspiration for me to make the hoseclamp version, although the first time I made them from those "lined" hoseclamps (because the old tools had that liner layer in them) but there is no way to make the 'liners' stay inside the clamp when the rings start sliding toward the bore. Then that liner snags the ends of the lower oil ring, much like my previous mistake.