Motor in bad shape - is there hope?

[Molotov256]

More delay

Heard back from Pirate Cycles again, and they are sadly out of stock in the 80cc piston ring department. Justin tried to pull a set off of a spare motor for me, but they broke during the removal process (I know how that goes!). There are some inbound from the manufacturer, but it'll probably be a little while before they make it to the states. So, delayed again, but I still can't complain about the effort Pirate Cycles has put in.

 

[Molotov256]

Not trying to bump an old post, but just wanted to leave it with some conclusion.

I got a replacement set of rings from Pirate Cycles (thanks again to Justin, I will always start my MB shopping with them in the future), and the motor is running again! Yea!

The bike still isn't running as well as I want it to, but those issues are for other posts.

For folks who are replacing piston rings on a HT motor, here are a few things I learned along the way during my ring replacement debacle:

• Respect your new rings. They are fragile.
• Remove the piston from the rod before attempting to install new rings. Working on a bench is a lot nicer.
• Once the rings are on the piston, make sure the spaces in the rings are properly aligned with the pins in each groove. The rings will EASILY slide over the pins and become misaligned if you stop paying attention to their orientation. Search the forum for more info on this, as there are some good pics posted. I broke my first set by trying to force the piston back into the cylinder without realizing one of my rings had slipped over it's alignment pin.
• Slide the piston back into the cylinder BEFORE putting it back on the rod.
• When trying to put those god forsaken G clips back into the piston, use a few paper towels under the piston to keep the g clip from falling down into the lower part of the engine, because it WILL spring out on you a few times while you try and get it back in there. If it does fall into the lower part of the engine, a magnet on a telescoping rod or a magnetic screwdriver will help get it out (sounds like I had to do this before, doesn't it?).

Thanks again to everybody on here for all the help, and props again to Pirate Cycles for being awesome to deal with.