Piston circlips with tails are more out of fashion than Trump’s hairstyle. The problem with tailed circlips is that the gudgeon pin can spin in high mileage engines and eventually wear through the tails until they drop off in your engine. You don’t want that any more than you want a Hamster with alopecia on your head.
As a result, many piston manufacturers have now moved to the use of plain C-shaped circlips which do a perfect job of retaining the gudgeon pin but can be a fiddly pain to fit.
Casa Performance circlip tool
The solution to this is the new piston circlip tool from Casa Performance; which turns a difficult job into a total breeze. You simply load the circlip into the tube and push it into position in the piston with the central part of the tool acting as a guide aligned by the gudgeon pin.
The guys from Casa Performance have produced two versions of this tool to suit their Lambretta cylinder kits, but they will also be of use to many other types of scooter and motorcycle. There’s a 16mm version which will fit Lambretta and many large frame Vespa pistons. Additionally, there’s a 12mm version for Lunas, J-ranges and many 50cc and 70cc automatic engines.
These steel tools are priced at £15.60 or €17.50.
For more information see Rimini Lambretta Centre.
Sticky
Have you seen our latest SLUK Merchandise?
That’s seems a great bit of kit, but how do you get them out without damaging the piston?
Reverse engineering?
It may be me or there are different diameters of clip wire but I damage the clip when trying to insert it into the tool.