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So true. Lately, my project efforts focus on freeing up workspace by putting basket cases back together. It's slow going but it does eventually clear off a workbench or two.
Meethinks Mr. Fletcher might be better off finding a "Motorcycles Anonymous" group somewhere than asking for our help!

I have a carport, an 8' x 12' shed, and a small workshop off the carport.
I only have the two Triumphs, but I still troll Craigs List for other bikes. Unless it's something really attractive and reasonable, I don't want another project. My Bonneville is relatively trouble free, but I look for a decent Japanese 250- 450 twin with an electric leg, something I don't have to plan all morning to ride into town.
Maybe I'll just go to the dealer in Lenoir City and buy a new RE Meteor.

Going slowly and carefully. It took over an hour just to make the props for the pistons, which have to be a precise thickness if you don't want the pistons to move around while you're trying to get the cyl. barrel on. (Oh, BTW, this is a TR5T.)

I wasn't able to source proper flip-lock, wrinkle-band ring compressors for this size piston, so I have to use those T-bolt clamps, which are inconvenient in a few ways. First, they have to be completely opened to get them on, and then it's difficult to get the bolt back in place without rotating the rings. Then you have to get just the right tension on the bolt so the rings are compressed but the compressor will slide down. Ideally the ring compressors will support the weight of the barrel without sliding down until you push the barrel down. That's so that you can get the pistons properly aligned with the bores before pushing the barrel down. (There is a bit of side-to-side play on the connecting rods.) The barrel must be slid down over the rings straight and decisively; if it "kicks up" on one side, it's back to square one with the whole process.

Lastly, once the barrel is on, in order to remove the T-bolt clamps, they must be slid down past the bottom edge of the piston skirts, and the wooden props removed, one at a time, while the cylinder barrel is more or less suspended in midair.

All that remains is to prepare myself mentally to drop that barrel on tomorrow.

I've got that job to do tomorrow on my A65. I have the 9" x 5/8 x 5/8" support sticks, but no proper ring compressors. I can usually get by with 3" worm-gear hose clamps, especially if I have a second set of hands helping. I generally have to buy dinner afterward though.

Lannis

I too, use the worm gear hose clamps. It helps to pinch out small divots every couple of inches to keep the hose clamps from trying to enter the cylinders.

And here in use, although you can't see the divots here.

Tom

Its quicker and easier to have some strips of annealed aluminium or brass and compress the rings using cable ties over those strips instead of using hose clamps. Then, once the cylinder(s) are over the rings it takes seconds to snip the cable ties and take the annealed strips out. I have never needed a second pair of hands and never had a problem.

John

am i alone these days in just using the bionic fingers approach to piston rings?

nothing else has ever worked for me.

You are not alone, me too.

Me three.
It's easy if you simply line the ring gaps up toward the thrust face (1 piece oil ring) then rock the cylinder a bit so it first covers the portion of the ring away from the gap. Then work the cylinders slowly over the rings, gradually straightening, applying a judicious poke here and there, until the rings are fully in. Done it many times that way.

But, I think I can hear the howls of outrage from here. WHAT, DON'T YOU KNOW the ring gaps have to be staggered? Yes I know, and that's what I do when using a ring compressor. But I also know that rings that aren't pinned rotate when the engine is running and they will not stay lined up for long. Haven't had any smoking problems either. But to each his own.

A little time filing a lead in the barrel with a 1/2 round file makes the job easy.

i think my stuff must all have chamfers in the liners already.

whichever, ive never been coordinated enough to manage any of the ring compressor techniques, whether its real tools, hose clamps, plastic soda jug strips, zip ties, whatever.

but if i carefully lower the jugs and work the rings in by hand they generally do it without a lot of fuss

I did that the first two times I installed cylinders on a triple. It worked the first time, I broke one ring the second time The bike was my only transportation, so I rode the bus to the end of the line and walked a couple of miles to the dealer to get a 500 ring (he said it would fit.) Had to do the whole trek again to get a correct 250 ring.
When I did my A65 I used a couple of hose clamps. I also did that the last time I put new rings on my Trident. I have one of the correct triple ring compressors, but it's too loose on a standard bore piston. The hose clamp is only difficult to remove from the center piston.
I have bought a couple of those T bolt ring compressors for when my cylinders come back from boring. You haven't lived until you put cylinders back on a triple, it's another job which really takes three hands, but I've always been able to do it alone.
The triple liners are already chamfered at the bottom.

i think on occasion ive run a bolt into the top of the jugs and then suspended them from the frame as i work the rings in. normally i dont do it but it seems to me that it might be helpful on a triple.

Another vote for 2 of those wider 3 inch hose clamps, for 650/750 twins. Goes to the races in the top of the tool box so you always have them, and you can use it alone without a helper to keep the weight of the cylinder off the rings so you don't break/bend, just get everything lined up and the cylinder started down to the clamps, and then gently and evenly loosen the clamps a little at a time and gently rock the cylinder down. In the garage, a real ring compressor works better, but who has one of those with them on the road?

Good thing I never had to remove/replace cylinders away from home. I'm sure that it happens all the time.

We tried the fingers-only way last night but it was too much of a fight.

Used the hose clamps and they slid on fairly easily. Have to find the sweet spot where the clamp is tight enough to squeeze the rings down to a .010 gap but not so tight that it won't slide.....

Lannis

well, it does happen often enough at the races. Daytona, for instance, is approximately 4000 miles from home up here in the great frozen north, and that's pretty much "on the road."

Well, I work so slowly that if I had to do this for pay I couldn't buy a popsicle with my weekly earnings LOL!

Anyway, I finally got done with prepping my 1979 T140D for the upcoming riding year. This bike has very mild engine mods, including the billet MAP 9-1/2 to 1 pistons, retimed intake cam (98.5 deg., exhaust stock 103 deg.), R lifters on both intake and exhaust, new AMAL Mk IIs with European jetting, and a pair of Uni sock air filters and a short (and unfortunately noisy) muffler to let it breathe. I also completelyrebuilt it from the sludge trap up. It also got a Boyer and Podtronics, 7 plate clutch, and a red and gold Indian gas tank and T120 side covers to replace the stock parts (I own enough black motorcycles, and the later sidecovers don't look good to me). This is sort of my project bike, the one I ride the most and the hardest, and the only one that doesn’t look more or less100% stock. It is a real pleasant ride but like all of them, it takes a bit of maintenance to keep going and there are always lots of things to improve and fettle.

This year in an attempt to get rid of some more of the stiction that infects these forks I replaced the cheap fork tubes I originally bought for this with made in Britain OEM quality tubes. The cheap Chinese ones were .002-.003 oversize, which decreased the clearance to the sliders about half, so I am hoping this will help. The "never leak" fork seals, of course, leaked and soaked the brake pads with oil. I replaced them with the two lip standard seals, in the hopes of getting better life and better sealing, but I am introducing back a major source of stiction here. Anyway, other than those changes, I left the forks as I had them, otherwise optimized to decrease stiction--viton piston rings to replace the o-rings, careful alignment and installation, etc. Hopefully after the seals break in, I won't have added too much stiction back. It seems to me that the stiction is a sort of design feature of these forks and can't ever be erased, but it can be diminished--the fix would be replacing these forks with others but I want to keep the major components of my street bikes all stock.

I also changed the front brake pads, changed the disc to a full floater disc, changed the sock Uni air filters to some black ones (just an appearance preference here), and changed the engine oil and Charlie's filter, the trans oil, and adjusted the valves and the chains. Finally, I fixed a broken wire in the turn signals and revived them. It took forever to get this modest set of tasks done, but now that the days are a bit longer and the snow is melting in Alaska, I'll have more motivation to do my T120, Commando and Spitfire more quickly so I have them all ready for riding come May.

Always used the fingers method when all I ever had was singles, from Bantam, Villiers 225 etc. up to the ES2 and 500 Clipper and so on. Now, with twins, I managed to get the barrel on the Daytona the other day with the correct clamps but it was still fun holding barrel up without pulling it off the rings while I got the ring clamps out of the plot. Next time I might try holding the barrel up with some kind of rig as Kevin suggested. There's never anyone handy when one gets the urge to do those kind of jobs. Made up a couple of handles recently when I had to put the assembled engine without barrel into the frame a few days ago. I guess I'm just getting old...... now that I'm over 80.... but summer is coming!

Cheers, Wilf

Well this is going quicker, got my 70 Bonneville on and off in a few hours. Changed the oil, adjusted the valves and the chains, and just looked it all over. Nothing here to take much time. I had a plan to mount a Norton oil filter that I abandoned for now but maybe later this summer I’ll have time for that. Interesting that I usually change plugs yearly but since I changed to the new Concentric Premiers the plugs look fine and so I didn’t change them. Next the Commando, which should be quick except for adjusting the front Isolastics.

Finished prepping my 73 Norton Commando 850 for summer. I adjusted the front isolastic (I had replaced its rubber gaiters earlier), changed oil and filter, adjusted valves and chains, checked the primary and trans oil levels, and looked at but didn’t change my B7EVs. I also installed a Don Pender/Madass 140 oil pressure light switch. I wired it to the ignition accumulator white/brown to use that warning light, and disconnected the remaining green/yellow accumulator wire and red ground— no great loss, the thing hasn’t worked for years, so into the trash it went. I’d rather know about loss of oil pressure anyway, if I had to choose between the two.

I think I’m maybe getting a bit eager, since we still have 5-6 foot snow berms out front, but hey, I’m hot to ride and it’ll still be a month. Next up is my Spitfire but it’ll be awhile, other things are going to interrupt my garage time for the next couple weeks.

This is the cylinder head from my son's TR5T. The engine was torn down shortly after a rebuild because it smoked (profusely). As it turns out, the problem had nothing to do with the cylinder head, but I've been advised by everyone to lap the valves - as my dear departed BSA engine man used to say, "Rule of thumb: If your thumb's on it, do it".

In regard to the above posts about ring compressors (or the lack thereof), these T-bolt clamps are a little better than the worm screw type, as they are smooth on the inside and therefore less likely to scratch the pistons.

Nothing today, but yesterday I finished installing the tapered roller bearings in my Trident forks. Still gotta put the tubes back in and replace seals and oil.
Jake Hall says that he's bored my cylinders. I can pick them up when I drive over the mountain for the Meltdown at the end of the month. Then comes the fun of juggling ring clamps to get three pistons in.

During the last couple of days I have been preparing my '67 TR6R for the new season. I used to ride it all year round as I have said before but the bike just goes rusty on the winter salty roads and I get cold.

Before the winter I spray the bike with a protector spray and put one of those breathable covers on it for the winter hibernation. This winter just gone we had a very cold spell followed by a warm wet spell which made the garage get more damp than usual. I uncover it partially every one or two weeks to give it a kick over and check the battery. I noticed bits were going rusty this time that don't usually. Some white deposits were forming on the alloy and various bolt heads were looking a bit bad. I put some extra normal oil on the alloy during the winter.

Anyway, now I am tarting it up a bit. I painted the barrels in situ after a rub down but I can never get all of the old paint off so it seems to bubble up after a few rides. I couldn't face getting a load of paint stripper in between the fins and trying to clean it out. It will have to wait until it is off the bike. Each winter I think I will do the valves and clutch but I never do it because it goes ok. It would go better even with just a valve grind I'm sure but I am worried about what else I might find.

Dave

I hadn't realized until this morning how much discussion I generated over ring compressors. There is certainly more than one way to skin a cat! (I wonder where such an awful expression came from.) Lotta good ideas; I especially like the one about putting wrinkles in the hose clamps so they don't slip inside the bores.

I previously used the "bionic fingers" method on the very engine I'm working on now, with the help of a friend. It may have been because my friend is on the "A" side of personality types, but I managed to chip an oil ring. So naturally I vowed not to let that happen again.

I'm surprised at the number of you long-time veterans who don't have dedicated ring compressors. Apparently I'm very fortunate to have a pair for my A65. They were given to me a long time ago; I don't even remember by whom.