So, I ordered a Golf Piston from a vendor site/sponsor here and had it waiting in the box until I got into this Husky K970 94cc demo saw.
So, this saw is a strato design and I was able to thankfully save the cylinder (thanks Mastermind), but I didn't want to spend $100 on an OEM piston, so I got a GOLF instead for $30.
It arrived with everything coated in a cosmoline-grease (I believe).
After seeing how weak the tension was on the wrist pin clips that came with the Golf piston, I decided to reuse my OEM ones, but that is not where the problem was....
Deburred the entire piston and had to hone out the wrist pin holes unless I wanted to use a 5 pound hammer to install the wrist pin (yes, even with lube on it).
Polished the inside of the wrist pin to get the crud and rust out of the new pin.
Deburred the edges of the rings with a stone and installed the rings.
Put the squeeze tool on it and Voila! Into the cylinder it went.
Went to bolt the cylinder down after cleaning the gasket and surfaces of dripped oil, and barely snugged the cylinder.
Rotated up to TDC, all good, good quench with gasket (.033) I believe.
Rotated down to BDC and CLUNK!!!!!!
As the crank stopped with a dull thud...
WHAT THA.....(insert explicative here).... Blah, blah, junk crap.... ARGH!!!!
So, I yank the cylinder back off and can see the bottom of the piston skirt semi circle notch seems to be hitting the crankcase top and rocking the piston.
Removed the piston, started grinding on the piston to gain more relief for the crankcase humps on each side.
Got it to clear and was even.
Reassembled with no bolts....
Turn over again.....
CLUNK!!!!!
(Insert more explicative a here)
Pulled the jug and put some dykem on the piston skirt and case.
It was marking the bottom of the skirt in several places.
Chucked piston in my lathe (I told my wife it wasn't just for fun), and began to turn the skirt shorter to match the length of the OEM skirt....
Ended up being .060 longer than OEM.
Turned it down and cleaned it up good and did a final check. Got it going about an hour ago now, runs like a top.
I am going to tell the distributor about the issue and warn them of others they have sold, I obviously blame GOLF, not the place that sold it to me.
In the end, it was much thicker and wasn't as nice as oem, but was less than 1/3 the price. I definitely would have gone with Meteor if available instead.
So, this saw is a strato design and I was able to thankfully save the cylinder (thanks Mastermind), but I didn't want to spend $100 on an OEM piston, so I got a GOLF instead for $30.
It arrived with everything coated in a cosmoline-grease (I believe).
After seeing how weak the tension was on the wrist pin clips that came with the Golf piston, I decided to reuse my OEM ones, but that is not where the problem was....
Deburred the entire piston and had to hone out the wrist pin holes unless I wanted to use a 5 pound hammer to install the wrist pin (yes, even with lube on it).
Polished the inside of the wrist pin to get the crud and rust out of the new pin.
Deburred the edges of the rings with a stone and installed the rings.
Put the squeeze tool on it and Voila! Into the cylinder it went.
Went to bolt the cylinder down after cleaning the gasket and surfaces of dripped oil, and barely snugged the cylinder.
Rotated up to TDC, all good, good quench with gasket (.033) I believe.
Rotated down to BDC and CLUNK!!!!!!
As the crank stopped with a dull thud...
WHAT THA.....(insert explicative here).... Blah, blah, junk crap.... ARGH!!!!
So, I yank the cylinder back off and can see the bottom of the piston skirt semi circle notch seems to be hitting the crankcase top and rocking the piston.
Removed the piston, started grinding on the piston to gain more relief for the crankcase humps on each side.
Got it to clear and was even.
Reassembled with no bolts....
Turn over again.....
CLUNK!!!!!
(Insert more explicative a here)
Pulled the jug and put some dykem on the piston skirt and case.
It was marking the bottom of the skirt in several places.
Chucked piston in my lathe (I told my wife it wasn't just for fun), and began to turn the skirt shorter to match the length of the OEM skirt....
Ended up being .060 longer than OEM.
Turned it down and cleaned it up good and did a final check. Got it going about an hour ago now, runs like a top.
I am going to tell the distributor about the issue and warn them of others they have sold, I obviously blame GOLF, not the place that sold it to me.
In the end, it was much thicker and wasn't as nice as oem, but was less than 1/3 the price. I definitely would have gone with Meteor if available instead.
