Reply To: Mercury KE4 Piston Ring

[green-thumbs]

Fist prepare the cylinders
Cylinder should be deglazed by ball hone and washed with detergent and water until
all traces of grit and abrasive. REALLY CLEAN

Inspect cylinder for scoring and excessive wear.

Inspect and prepare pistons by cleaning ring grooves and checking for scoring and
other damage. The anti -rotting pins in piston ring grooves should NOT be mashed
down..,,if the pins mashed down the rings will not align to install pistons in cylinder

Install piston on rods with open end down from the top bottom piston first on twins
The G clips sometimes get loose and fly when installing so wear safety glasses

Installing rings on pistons can be done with fingers …there is a tool for the purpose
which is nice but not essential and a little expensive unless a garage sale find,

Gasket between cylinder and crankcase has to be in place BEFORE you install cylinder …I like to use short screws to hold gasket in place while pistons are slipped
into cylinder , remove to allow cylinder to be fully inserted into crankcase.

Wipe oil on cylinder walls prito to installing pistons…I do with oily fingers…no tools needed.

Rings are on piston, piston is on connecting rod and connecting rod is installed on
crankshaf and gasket is in place on crankcase.

NOW the ANSWER to YOUR QUESTION,. I was having the same problem with the same
powerheadd despite several tries with different makeshit devices…NO LUCK at all.
I gave up and bought a piston ring clamp set out of a chain saw catalog…works every time as long as the above conditions and preparations are followed.
Bailey’s Inc.
item # 10429 Piston Ring Clamp Kit
as of 01/14/11 $7,95 plus $ 7.95 S&H
Bailey’s serves the chain saw trade. No idea why I got on their mailing list.

I have used them a number of times on Mercury twins from K4 thru Mark 7
As long as the pins in ring grooves are undamaged no problem easy assembly.

The important thing in all this is the rings have to be fitted to the cylinder and the
ends f rings have to be located and kept in place by the anti rotation pins.
Louis