I ordered some new piston rings for the third stage of my Bauer VT12 compressor, and presumed that slipping the cylinder over the rings would be a trivial task. Boy was I wrong. By wiggling and rotating the cylinder, I can nudge the first two rings into the cylinder bore, but the third ring repeatedly cracks in half with only a trivial amount of pressure. I burned through $50 of rings trying all manner of lubricants, wiggling, rotating and every other means of coercion I could think of. It is truly startling how easily the rings can break.
Is this a typical problem? Is there a trick to assembly that I am unaware of?
Here are some theories I had about possible reasons it may not be working:
- Honing the cylinder may have scratched the cylinder bore entrance bevel and maybe it's catching on a tiny scratch?
- I noticed the new rings did not have a one degree bevel like I had expected they might. Did I get the wrong rings?
- There doesn't appear to be any way to get a ring compressor on the piston while inserting it. Is there a sleeve or special tool for this?
- The old rings seem to fit ok, but not the new ones. Are the new rings bad (ironically they both measure exactly the same, dimensionally)?
Any thoughts?
Is this a typical problem? Is there a trick to assembly that I am unaware of?
Here are some theories I had about possible reasons it may not be working:
- Honing the cylinder may have scratched the cylinder bore entrance bevel and maybe it's catching on a tiny scratch?
- I noticed the new rings did not have a one degree bevel like I had expected they might. Did I get the wrong rings?
- There doesn't appear to be any way to get a ring compressor on the piston while inserting it. Is there a sleeve or special tool for this?
- The old rings seem to fit ok, but not the new ones. Are the new rings bad (ironically they both measure exactly the same, dimensionally)?
Any thoughts?