Robin 350 new Red Hawk Pistons, which way do the RINGS GO??

[Tfastle@aol.com]

Yes, the end gap is about .012" which I believe is within the "new ring" specs. After cleaning up the cylinders (they were a mess from dirt and rust) I mic'd them and they were pretty close to original and cleaned up nicely so I didn't bore them. Just honed and put a nice crosshatch on them.

None of my rings look like that second picture and, I don't think the second ring is actually a real "wiper" but more of a compression ring that does some wiping (the outside edge is not at an angle). I was told by the dealer I got the parts from that in the old days they used to use a wiper but now use more of a 2 compression ring configuration. They are the ones that said it didn't matter which ring was on top and which went in the middle. While dubious about that at first as I've done a lot of reading and looked into it I suspect it might be accurate.

Short of a tech sheet from the manufacturer popping up I think I am going to go with my plan, letters facing up, R in the top grove, RN in the middle. That looks almost just like the manual drawings except more of a compression ring in the second grove rather than a wiper. As a matter of fact the second ring in the drawing in the manual looks very much like the wiper ring in your last post.

I'm going to work on it some tonight but have to leave town tomorrow through the weekend. Once I get it together and in the cart (will be a few weeks I am sure) I'll do a compression check and post back here what that is. And once it's up running I'll update here how it's running and if it's using any oil so anyone that actually reads all of this will have an idea of how I did it and if it worked well or not. Thanks for all the effort and feedback!

I gotta say, that's **** funny that you sent an email about which rings go where and in what direction to the wrong Red Hawk! :o)

[trig123]

Originally Posted by Tfastle@aol.com

Yes, the end gap is about .012" which I believe is within the "new ring" specs. After cleaning up the cylinders (they were a mess from dirt and rust) I mic'd them and they were pretty close to original and cleaned up nicely so I didn't bore them. Just honed and put a nice crosshatch on them.

None of my rings look like that second picture and, I don't think the second ring is actually a real "wiper" but more of a compression ring that does some wiping (the outside edge is not at an angle). I was told by the dealer I got the parts from that in the old days they used to use a wiper but now use more of a 2 compression ring configuration. They are the ones that said it didn't matter which ring was on top and which went in the middle. While dubious about that at first as I've done a lot of reading and looked into it I suspect it might be accurate.

Short of a tech sheet from the manufacturer popping up I think I am going to go with my plan, letters facing up, R in the top grove, RN in the middle. That looks almost just like the manual drawings except more of a compression ring in the second grove rather than a wiper. As a matter of fact the second ring in the drawing in the manual looks very much like the wiper ring in your last post.

I'm going to work on it some tonight but have to leave town tomorrow through the weekend. Once I get it together and in the cart (will be a few weeks I am sure) I'll do a compression check and post back here what that is. And once it's up running I'll update here how it's running and if it's using any oil so anyone that actually reads all of this will have an idea of how I did it and if it worked well or not. Thanks for all the effort and feedback!

I gotta say, that's **** funny that you sent an email about which rings go where and in what direction to the wrong Red Hawk! :o)

The person that answered me said I was not the only person asking about ezgo engines but they were a software company. I sent an email back saying I was close, just hardware instead of soft

If you put the silver-chrome- or light color ring on top with R on top then you are good.

The next one is the wiper. I got a set of these Red Hawks . You convinced me to open up the pack and look .

You can feel the wiper ring ( the black one ) if you run you finger over it and feel where they cut a small part of it where it does its job on the down stroke.

Magnifying glass will show it plain. R on top or whatever mark yours is. Mine is a tiny white R on both compression and wiper ring . Yours may not be that way .

Most of these compression rings are a different color than black. Mine is more like chrome. That is the top one. Those were in my pack the same place. First one out of pack.

Let us know how things go. Remember to oil that crankshaft good and the holes in shaft. I use special engine building oil on anything that moves.

[Tfastle@aol.com]

Just a quick update on this for anyone that runs into the same thing.

I installed the rings as mentioned above. The ring with a slight chamfer on both outside edges as the top ring, the other non oil ring as the (no chamfers) in the middle and, of course, the oil ring on the bottom. I originally thought the oil ring was too big but, not having rebuilt a lot of 4 cycles, it was the spring (center piece) holding the other two out that made them tight. Make sure you don't overlap the spring, the ends of it should but. With a ring compressor they went in fine but, in my case, the pistons did feel tight (I think mostly because I mostly have done two strokes) but it seem they were fine.

I have about an hour on the cart and it seems to run well and the compression is 147lbs. I am at a 5300 ft elevation so that's roughly equivalent to 175lbs compression at sea level.

So, if you get Red Hawk rings with no instructions maybe this will help. They look very similar to the service manual drawing (image below) except the center Red Hawk ring has a rectangular cross section (no notch and no angle like in the drawing) and the Red Hawk oil ring is one piece.