wanted wiseco piston rings

[Hydraulic Jack]

Joe, what you mentioned is a critical check that Bruce missed when running down the things to look at in a piston. The anti-rotation pins must fall on an uninterrupted cylinder wall or continuous port bridge to keep the rings from snagging in a port. Most two stroke pistons will have similar configurations, but it isn't guaranteed that they will swap back and forth just because they are for a two stroke. Most piston manufacturers try to stagger pin locations on multi-ring applications, and usually keep them facing toward the intake side of the cylinder.

On the other hand, if you find a piston that otherwise would work, but the rotation pins are misplaced, you can relocate them.

My guess is that places like Wiseco have all this information about which brand and bike has which pin diamater, crown height, and so on, but also guess they would not want to share their charts and data. That would make sourcing a piston too easy for us.

[Joe Ormonde]

Absolutely!!! I`m just going to keep on looking. I enjoy learning more and more! I need to post a photo of a + .040 Model 93 piston that started out as a Model 92 piston and was machined for a dykes ring. I have 2 and I`ve only seen it in +.040. I`ll have my son help me post some photos. Joe Ormonde.

[matt glascock]

Cool. Interesting chat. Thanks fellas!

[Bruce Young]

Hodaka World, now you all know the issue of trying to find replacement Pistons, and Rings, it is a nite mare. The vintage bike world throughout the years did find all kinds of replacement parts when we could not find NOS items and went on to find other brand items that fit and worked, many of those finds have thru the years been forgotten, and its just plan hard to determine what one has when the pop open a vintage bike engine. Lots and lots of other brand items in place, hard to know what was used. I asked many times as an seasoned Hodaka rider, what brand pistons and rings did you use, and how did they work,I got many, many diff answers.
I remember a time when one would not absolutely use Wiesco pistons in the older bikes, did not last. Well what happened, Wiesco got the message and made adjustments to their manf. process and today Wiesco is one of the go to pistons and rings used, when old NOS Hodaka pistons and rings cannot be found. Please keep up this conversation, we will all learn from it, but lets all give details when we learn what we have in our hand. We all need to know.

[Joe Ormonde]

Absolutely!!! I have a few Hodakas to keep running so spare parts are imperative! My biggest gripe about my 71 Super Rat when it was new was the ring life. The iron dykes ring it came with needed to be replaced AFTER 24 HOURS RUNNING TIME. That was with a 20:1 fuel mix ratio. The little shop in Norco, CA. where I bought it FINALLY carried the POPPY rings. That solved that problem! The NPR chrome are better than the iron, but the Poppy ring is King! They live at least 2 times longer than the factory ring did and won`t snap in two if you bend them too far. Also, I still like the ART Model 93 piston the best. I could generally change out the Poppy ring twice then the piston was shot! What part was the best thing my Rat came with new? The DID chain! At least mine was. It lasted a long ,long time! Joe Ormonde.

[olddogs]

15 or 20 years ago when the supply of Super Rat oversized pistons began to dry up, one vendor did offer what I believe was a Sachs piston as a suitable replacement. It fit and did work, at least for a while. The anti rotation pin was just a few thousands off and as the cylinder broke in, the ring would snag a transfer port. I believe Paul had some bad experiences and more than a few words for these "replacement pistons". I had one in a restored bike and removed it when a proper reproduction became available.