piston circlips, whats yr view?

[jonnysnatchsniffer]

so then, piston circlips ? so yr told to use new ones everytime you use one. why??? its only a spring after all, you dont change every circlip in the motor everytime you change a bearing so why should you on the piston? by this reckoning you should change the piston rings each time they are taken off
but surely if fitting and then taking out damages them, then putting them in the first place must half fuck them up, so....
g clips, so my polini according to them use a 1.25mm x 15mm G shaped wire clips, so get this no fucker does a 1.25mm and the one i took out is 1.2mm yet the fucking replacement ones from polini only measure 1.1mm and they say they are ok
so whats yr thoughts???
ive never had a circlip failure in a motor i have built even reusing them 5 times, tho i always use wire g shaped ones

[Yoshi]

I've once had a G-clip pop loose and ruin a cylinder a real long time ago. I too admit to re-use C-clips if they still feel tight on the groove.

Some maniacs use the seeger type clips (the ones you fit with lock ring pliers) on pistons, but they spell disaster. They are heavy and eventually ends snap off snap due to stress. Seen many of these fail and wreck the cylinder.

[jonnysnatchsniffer]

yeah ive got some more anyway, i was just thinking about the clips in general, i see them as springs, my question is this according to polini the g ring is 1.25mm thick, but is really 1.2mm, so got another set from polini and these are bagged as 1.2mm but are only 1.1mm, see where im going with this? 2 polini pistons exactly the same one has 1.1mm clips and the other 1.2mm yet polini spec 1.25mm clip thickness
what im more worried about in fitting the 1.2mm one that came out is the obvious lack of spring tension the thinner they get
plus i could always loctite them in ha ha ha ha, nah seriously there are people out there that actually do this not just for the clips but on the pins too lol.
see looking at that pic, what clip is that? it looks like the ones with 2 holes in, i have to say that id never reuse one of those, but snaprings aint like that
g rings neither, so i gotta choice, the one that came out or the thinner ones or yet thinner ones

[henri]

seeger type circlips i always replace with new , the wire G or C clips its a judgement call on wether there ok to re-use .any doubt an they get thrown out ,an you cant mix an match .if pistons machined to take seegers they got to be used an vice versa .H

[jbcollier]

Thanks for pointing that out. Make sure the clip you use matches the shape of the groove. Also make sure you place the gap facing "up" or "down", NEVER TO THE SIDE!

[tzsteve]

I like the plain wire types with no G tang the tab can get worn by the pin

And new clips on every rebuild for me

[jonnysnatchsniffer]

well i have to change the piston and ring every 600 miles anyway lol, as the piston and ring are supposed to wear rather than the barrel
ive never had clips go, reused or not, tho i have snapped conrods which is about the worst you can get regard to damage