www.zxrworld.co.uk

ok. its time for the bi-yearly engine rebuild. just one quick question. as the last time i rebuilt this i was unable to get the cylinder off to replace the base gasket ( dont ask ), i was wondering whats the best way to get the pistons back in the cyls. thats it i guess. lol

I think a soft mallet is the way to loosen the block?

You can get special tools that compress the piston rings, they just clamp round the piston allowing you to insert the top part.

These are the tools for the job

http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search. ... compressor

Theres probably a way to do it without these but thats the method i know of.

will i get away with just one?

no lol ..

ive never used one .. it really depends on whether you are replacing the piston rings .. or re-using the old ones.. if re-using its "fairly" easy if a bit fiddly to slide the block back on to the pistons working on 2+3 or 1+4 first depending on whatever you find easiest.

if using new rings it can be an butt .. leading to snapped rings and scored bores .. last time i was in this position, i juts rang a local garage and got them to do that bit, then carried on with the rebuild once home.

ive done loads of 2 stroke rebuilds base up, this is me first bike 4 stroke. cars are so much easier lol.

I've improvised piston ring compressors before with a very thin metal sheet and a couple of big jubilee clips.

this was rebuilding a van engine (with big pistons - it was a 2.1ltr four pot), and it had separate liners so we could do them one at a time. so I take no responsibility for what might happen if you tried to do this on your engine.

it'll be ok with a bit of cunning, the zxr bores are chamfered anyway

im just waiting in a reply from cradleys on the bits i need and then ill crack on with it.