I found the HOLY GRAIL! (1926 Harley)

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bird

New Member
Dec 5, 2011
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prunedale, CA
I have the engine in a million pieces at the moment in order to get It completely rebuilt and cannonball worthy, I stumbled upon something sorta interesting. Not two, not three, but five piston rings! no wonder the compression was still great after so many years!
 

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rustycase

Gutter Rider
May 26, 2011
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Left coast
That is pretty much in order with old long stroke industrial pistons, bird.

Really THICK rings! probably not much tension, so they ran a bunch of em.

and I would <think> the bottom set of doubled rings is possibly because some past builder did not have a proper expando oil control ring to fill the width of that groove.

IMO it is not necessary for you to go back with that configuration.
It's most likely ANY ring you will be able to get today will be of better quality than the old cast iron rings.

A couple compression rings at the top and an oil control ring at the bottom would probably suffice.

And that's all my opinion... I'd get more input from competent sources.

Actually, the pic doesn't seem to show any damage or excess wear.
I'd probably put em back in.

Thanks for posting the pic!
Best
rc
 

bird

New Member
Dec 5, 2011
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prunedale, CA
The cylinder has a tad bit of wear so it's being bored .5mm over right now and fitted with a new piston. It needs new valve guides so I made some on the lathe from barstock:D slowly coming together!