I did it with a cut down compressor. Slim so it still could fit between cylinders and block.

Was a pain, but do able.

Alistair

> On Oct 18, 2013, at 5:46 PM, Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Yes, I'd like to know how you gurus do this without the special VW ring
> compressing tool shown in the Bentley!  Install the piston in the sleeve and
> then attach the assembly to the rod?  This is another reason I've not
> bothered with rebuilding a WBX, but I am curious.
> 
> Stuart
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Tom Carchrae
> Sent: Friday, October 18, 2013 3:24 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: off with her heads
> 
> Thanks Dennis & Jim.   I had wondered about how hard it actually would be
> to put the piston rings back on.  I told my dad, who'd done it with his
> aircooled back in the day, and he said, what is the big deal, just pull the
> sleeve off.  Not that I don't trust him, but I think his last bus was
> around the time I was born (I've seen pics of my pregnant mom helping to
> lift out the engine by sitting on a board).  He thought it was a good idea
> to pull them off and you could perhaps get some more life/compression by
> changing the piston rings.  And yeah, I've seen a few videos on that piston
> clip and that looks like a horror.
> 
> Jim; you mentioned the sledge earlier - I have a 50lb one in the woodshed,
> dangerously close to the van.  I just look at it and mutter, please don't
> let it come to that!
> 
> Scott/Stuart - thanks for the warnings.  So far, I'm loving the flat engine
> layout, but I didn't know that the distributor could drop parts down like
> that.  Yeargh.
> 
> Tom