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The green 750 Companion has a design for making your own.
I followed this using some brass shim but folded the edges to make the link between the large and small sectors for a set piston size.
Is this still used by people, or have other simple, better designs been devised?
The width of the entire clamp seemed short from the Companion design - 1 1/4" - but then I'm actually unsure how the process of removing the compressor from each ring occurs in use. Does it work on its thinness which naturally occupies the tiny gap around the piston in the bore, or does it just clamp half the width of the ring while releasing into the bore below it?
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Location: North Yorkshire
But why would you? Halfords will sell you a ring compressor for about £12 that has a ratchet locking mechanism, will fit a range of piston sizes and won't damage rings or pistons. I've had mine for more years than I can remember and it continues to do its job without issue.
Steve
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+1.
I'm still using Grandfather's Terry's ring compressor, works beautifully every time.
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well, glad I posted... thanks.
The answers perhaps (a) because I don't have two of those (can one get away with one?) and (b) because someone bothered to put it in a book which has other advice which we are advised is good!!
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Location: Nottinghamshire. Robin Hood County
Car type: Austin Ruby Mk1 1935
I second Steve Jones. I have a Halfords one and it works well. However if you ever want to try the method of having the pistons and rods all bolted up to the crank first. Then introduce the pistons to the block such as if you only removed the block from the engine. (Something I have never personally done.) you need two ring compressors and of a type that will come off the rods easily.
John Mason.
Would you believe it "Her who must be obeyed" refers to my Ruby as the toy.
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JonE, be careful, little of the advice in the 750 Companion is rated as "Good" these days. It was pertinent to it's era which was when scrap yards were full of Austin 7s and you could pick up any amount of spare parts for shillings. Everything in the Companion must be considered in view of the changing times. I stick my neck out and say I don't really take heed of its advice without a lot of thought.
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Perhaps the companion needs a new preface then, as it's still being sold?!
John, which ring compressors come off the rods easily? I was going to lift off block with engine in situ first... and try detaching pistons from little ends just to minimise disassembly.
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There's never been a better time to draft a 'second edition' Companion updated or re-written with all we have learned and all we now have available to us. However you'd have to be either a world-class diplomat or very thick-skinned to take on the task. Even the first time around the compiler(s) had the sense to cut and paste what other people had said and present opposing viewpoints for the reader to choose between.
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In my impoverished youth I made a reasonably effective ring compressor out of an old drink can and a Jubilee clip. I think that the idea came from on of those wonderful pre-war motor maintenance books in which it's assumed that every owner-driver is happy to build and operate their own forge.
