wiseco circlips..

well, i am installing a new set of wiseco psitons in the 900, and man, are those circlips hard to work with! I can not get them in on the bench must less on the bike..:S
I noticed on the redline site that they use stock oem circlips on the wiseco..but says "special".
anyone have any experience with this?
or should I get the teflon buttons and be done with it?
or will a circlip tool work?
man...on and on and ....
:dry:

Might as well use the buttons. Cheap insurance.

i didnt have to many dramas putting mine in, just stick one end in first and use a very thin screwdriver/scribe to lever them in, make sure you put rags around the rods so that when you do drop a clip it doesnt go into the engine cases.

Been there, done that. I fussed about this when I was doing my engine. Fellow KZers told me, "Practice, practice, practice!" I did one on the bench over and over again with a piston pin in it, and you know? after about 30 minutes I was pretty good! Sat on the floor next to the engine, stuffed shop rags in around the rods, and had all 4 done in about 5 minutes. And because of the practice, didn't send a single clip zinging anywhere, and didn't drive the little screwdriver's blade into any of my fingers!:woohoo:

Time to make and market a circlip installation tool. pipe inside of a pipe...:side:

The groove in a Wiseco piston is larger/deeper than in a stock ART piston and the Wiseco circlip is heavier gauge steel than a stocker. I would definitely not put a stock circlip in a Wiseco piston or vise versa. They likely won't stay put. I would avoid buttons where possible as they tend to rub on the cylinder wall... use a Wiseco circlip would be best. I sort of put the open end in place in the groove at an angle (to get the circlip started) and press the other side home with flat punch. Keep something over the holes in the block below! Have a telescoping magnet on hand and make sure you get some spare circlips because if you don't they have already made an agreement to have one of them try an excape!

nads.com wrote:

Time to make and market a circlip installation tool. pipe inside of a pipe...:side:

Hmmm....
Seen 'em, seems to me they come in various sizes, including both 17mm and 18mm, but, being a cheep Scotsman, a half hour of practice made me good enough, and if'n I remember correctly, the ones I came across were about $20. That makes my time worth $40 an hour. :woohoo:
If I were going to do lots of these, the tool might be worth it. If'n one bike now and then is all you're doing, cheep me says, "Naw!!!!"

They are not that bad, once you figure out the trick getting them to " roll " into the groove it is easy, to save time and hassle put one side in on the bench, make sure you look to put the one that is on the inside in and the outside one will always be easy to install

I was terrified of one of them escaping so I cleaned out my workshop first to assist in finding any escapees. I bought a kit from the states (I am in NZ) and there were no spares.

I thought about putting the pistons in the bores first but the difficulty with inserting the clips persuaded me to use the convention piston on rod approach first.

The circlips are very stiff so I practised on the old pistions first

My approach was to put one of the ends in the groove
leaving one end out. The holding the circlip in postion with my left thumb I used a blunt screwdriver to push the free end up and into the groove. This took some force and I had a couple of slips with the screwdriver. Couple of pistons managed to get slight scratches in the procees. Once in the groove I moved the open ends around using a jewellers screwdriver so that the were not facing the groove gap

Just to let you all know, i did practice, and they did fine. just a little finesse.
all together now with only about an hour on the bike...
gonna ride tomorrow for a bit and see what we get..
thanks!
K