Hey guys. Bike is back together but I haven't really fired it up as I am a little worried about the ring placements. I followed the directions in my shop manual, which said to have the rounded ring on top, the bevelled ring in the middle with the bevel facing up and the oil ring at the bottom...all rings with the markings facing up. I did that...i'm just afraid that i might have mixed up the rounded and bevelled rings. I didn't really have a bevelled ring...instead a ring that had kind of a notch cut around the top of the ring...but it was fairly square, not diagonally bevelled like the manual picture shows. Am I correct in thinking that is the bevelled ring and it goes in the middle with the notch on the top?

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1976 Honda CBR360R/T
1998 Honda VTR1000 SuperHawk 996

Fargo, ND supports global warming

No you've got it right.
The rounded is on top, it's called the compression ring and keeps the boom within the cylinder.
The middle is called the scraper, it *gasp* scrapes oil from the cylinder wall.
The bottom is the oil ring as you said, and spreads oil *no, really???* on the cylinder wall.

My question though is the orientation of the middle one. You said it had a notch in it? But no bevel? Did the notch travel around the ring? Or was it in one spot? If it was in one spot it was designed to go in a certain area with a pin that's usually cast or put into the piston by the manufacturer.
Did it have notches on the end of the ring? Buzzz or Fireguzzi please feel free to step in if I'm wrong, but ff so the cut-out area usually goes up. Longer side is the bottom side.

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Have owned - 2001 Suzuki Volusia
Current bike - 2005 Kawasaki Z750S
MMI Graduation date January 9th, 2009. Factory Certifications in Suzuki and Yamaha

the notch goes all the way around the ring...let me see if I can make a picture with text so I can crudely show you what i'm talking about.

The manual shows the middle ring profile looking like this
____
......\
_____\

My ring profile looks like this
______
........|__
________|

(dots have nothing to do with ring...forum make the pics look funny if they weren't there)

Does that make any sense to anyone but me?

I made sure the markings were up and did my best to make sure the gaps were 120 deg from one another and not at a right angle to the piston pin. I did notice that the top bevelled ring and the oil ring have a smooth white finish on the face of the ring...the middle ring doesn't.

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1976 Honda CBR360R/T
1998 Honda VTR1000 SuperHawk 996

Fargo, ND supports global warming

I think you got it right. And the rings were marked and installed top-side up, so everything should be right.

The scraper ring looks like an update or replacement for the original tapered style. I've seen plenty of both styles, sometimes in the same engine, but I've always liked the tapered type best. For no particular reason I can put my finger on....... lol.

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No Witnesses....

Yep seems good to me! Well done!

_________________
Have owned - 2001 Suzuki Volusia
Current bike - 2005 Kawasaki Z750S
MMI Graduation date January 9th, 2009. Factory Certifications in Suzuki and Yamaha

say...while im on the subject. it said the gaps should not be at right angles to the piston pin...which they aren't...but i was thinking, one of them might be parallel (or pretty close to parallel) to the pin...is that going to be okay?

_________________
1976 Honda CBR360R/T
1998 Honda VTR1000 SuperHawk 996

Fargo, ND supports global warming

You should be fine. The most important thing is to have the gaps seperated from each other to prevent blowby.

_________________
No Witnesses....

+1

_________________
Have owned - 2001 Suzuki Volusia
Current bike - 2005 Kawasaki Z750S
MMI Graduation date January 9th, 2009. Factory Certifications in Suzuki and Yamaha