Piston Ring Alignment

[thomp1983]

Hi guys, currently got my l3 stripped down for a bit of a rebuild following a sheared spark plug, ive removed the barrels due to a leak from the base gasket and now ive come to put it back together ive got a question regarding piston ring alignment. the h manual shows the gaps for the top and second ring being opposite each other nice and simple (for explanation purposes im going to refer to the arrowed end of the piston as 12 o clock) so the gap for the first ring is at 12 the gap for the second ring is at 6 for the oil ring steel rails it says the gaps need to be at 30-40 degrees from the top ring gap so if i line them both up at about 2 o clock will this be right? do both oil ring steel rail gaps need to be in line with each other so both at 2 or are they supposed to be offset slightly so one would be at 30 degrees from 12 and the other 40 degrees from 12? hopefully that makes sense?

cheers
chris

[richr]

hi dude

personally i would get overly concerned about ring position providing the gaps dont line up you should be fine as the rings can rotate anyway

h t h rich

[Mori Man]

Yeah, I usually set mine at 12 , 4 & 8

Oil 3 parts just marginally offset from each other.

The time you fiddle about with them getting them in they will have budged but above gives you plenty margin.

Never had a problem to date

[thomp1983]

just some more info for anyone else who may find this thread in the future, found this image on another site it's for a zx7r but seems the same as the 400



just incase the picture disappears in the future using my original description the gap for the top ring goes at 12 o clock (where the arrow is) the gap for ring 2 goes at 6 o clock, the gap for the 1st oil ring side rail goes at 10.30, the split in the gold oil ring expander goes at 6 o clock, and the 2nd oil ring side rail goes at 1.30

chris