3 Piece piston dissassembly

Mudhen wrote:I'm not saying it can't be done, I've just never had any success with this.
The circlip fits snugly into the piston barrel. There seems to be no way to grab it without it spinning in its groove.
Mud

Thanks Mud,

Well, I am hoping it can be as I just pulled a rod out by accident.

It can be done,

Here is how I did it. Take a really stinkin small set of curved needle nose pliers and pop the collar where it splits up over the lip cast into the side of the piston. Then work your way around prying up a little at a time. It will come out easily. I then cleaned all the old junk out of the ball socket. Reassembly is the reverse. Snapping the collar back down can be a bit tricky start slow and work around till you hear the snap and then you know it's locked back in.

I ran it on prime afterwards and it stayed so I'm going to call it good. I am also glad Cox went with a pressed ball socket assy.

Ron

If the big end of the rod is egged oval, is it possible to substitute a rod removed from a piston with the pressed in design? While a new piston/rod assembly could be used in an old engine, changing the rod only would sort of preserve originality.

Jim

I am not sure if the rod big end is the same size. If it is then it's possible. It would be a lot of work and kind of risky.

The best bet would be to avoid the problem altogether. In my case it was unavoidable as I did everything correctly. I had let the engine soak, cleaned externally, applied heat, but didn't realize the cylinder had a burr. So when I went to rotate the crank I felt the bind and went to back off and that's when it seperated.

Dang, that is a good deal. I have a couple old bees that I haven't gone through yet. I wouldn't be surprised If I found one or two.

Somebody should buy that one. I thought the Babe Bee came out in '56?

It has the bright backplate so bets are it has a 3 piece piston.