OT Cyclemaster, or the peregrinations of a circlip

Finally started putting Cyclemaster back together this weekend. It turns out the rings were correct but needed material removing to clear anti rotation pegs - not what it said on the accompanying leaflet!

Anyway; rings fitted, piston re-united with 'rod and gudgeon pin circlips in, I didn't quite like the way one was seating so removed it again to check that I had cleaned the groove out properly. Ping! Off it flew across the workshop, I heard it hit a tool box, bounce twice on the floor then silence - no aural clue as to its final resting place. I don't know what your workshop is like, but I held out little hope of seeing the circlip again. Indeed, after a visual sweep followed by a bit of fishing with a magnet produced nothing, I resigned myself to loose assembling the engine with a tied on label to remind myself of the omission.

Just as I was easing the cylinder over the rings and down past the gudgeon pin I knocked a socket off the bench and saw it roll under the flywheel of another engine. When I bent down to retrieve it, there also under the flywheel was the errant circlip! Eased the cylinder up again, re-fitted clip and Robert's your relative. Had it not been late on Sunday evening I would probably have gone out and bought a lottery ticket to see if this good luck extended into other fields ;-)

Reply to
Nick H
Loading thread data ...

I have a story a bit like that.

I was rebuilding a Lister ST2 generator engine that I was reconditioning and had removed the pistons without removing the connecting rods which is what is recommended. This left them in place and as I was trying to get the gudgeon pin circlip back in place for the rear piston....ping; off it went!

The only noise I heard was a funny rattling that I immediately realized was the sound of the circlip falling down around the flywheel and the airshroud and bouncing down the ring gear to come to rest at the very bottom of the engine..

Any of you who have worked on most Listers will know that there is very little space between the two, so there I was wondering how the hell I was going to retrieve it.

First of all I rendered my clothing and knashed my teeth whilst shouting loud expletives! All in front of my 15 year old son.

Once I had returned to some form of normalcy, my sons says he knows how to get it out and off he trots.

Shortly he returned with a magnet which he had removed from a computer hard drive, these are very thin and extremely powerfull. After reaching into the air space above the flywheel and sticking it to the flywheel edge, we rotated the flywheel one whole turn and up popped the circlip!

Needless to say I was humbled by his quick thinking as I had thought of magnets but nothing that I had remembered would have fit.

Regards,

Chris Kessell

Reply to
Chris

In the 70's I was a professional motorcycle mechanic (one of the happiest times of my life, being paid to work on engines ;o)) ) I had started in the morning first thing, taking the engine out of a Honda 250 G5 (used to take me 20 minutes!), stripping off the head and barrels, scraping the gaskets off the barrels and getting them down for reboring by 10.30.

I came back, PDI'd a couple of mopeds and stopped for lunch.

After lunch, I ride off to Fowlers to get a gasket set and sweep by Piston Broke to pick up the cylinder with its nice new pistons.

By tea break, I've got it back together and lift the lump off the steel-topped bench to drop it into the frame. As I turn away, there on the bench top is a wire circlip. Cuddling the engine like a fool, I stare at it. Surely I didn't leave it out - but I remember clearing away the old stuff ... I put the engine down and minutely examine the circlip. It's new, slightly sticky with the maker's grease on it.

I know I put it in, but - well, what would you do?

Ten minutes later, I've got the barrels half way up the studs and find that both pistons have both circlips. Back together again in a blur of motion and into the frame, finishing just in time for my nemesis, Dennis, the manager, to walk in and say "That G5 be OK for tomorrow?" and looking up from my paper I nonchalantly reply that it's ready now.

Be still my beating heart.

Whilst a dumbstruck Dennis takes the money, I take it out and road test it, handing it back to the owner with a grin.

Washing my hands with the lads, I comment about the circlip and Tom said "Oh, THAT'S where it went. I searched high and low for that bloody thing when it pinged out of me hand".

Arrrgh .....................

Regards,

Kim Siddorn

Reply to
Kim Siddorn

What is this "floor" of which you speak? Does anyone else have one?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- snipped-for-privacy@boltblue.com John Lloyd - Cymru/Wales

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reply to
John.LloydUNSPAM

I've just put new server rack shelving into my office.

Four _years_ of dust bunnies needed to be shifted to find the floor, even after I'd shifted the piles of random paperwork. This paperwork consisted of equal mixtures of vital but useless things for the IR, C&E, similar for the DVLA, and even more useless garbage from M$oft.

The shack in Montana sounds ever more attractive 8-(

Reply to
Andy Dingley

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.