Hi John,
First off I fitted all the pistons to the condors. I never tried sliding them down from the top as I would think it would be a right bugger trying to get the circlip in with very little room to work with between the crankcase and cylinder block (not saying it can't be done though).
Next I rotated the crank so that the two inner pistons were at their highest point as these were the two that I would feed in first.
Install the ring compressors (two needed and don't clamp them too tight), I bought the Laser ones which worked very well -
LASER
Lower the cylinder block and position the pistons just inside the liner bore so that the compressors are up against the bottom skirt. Now tap the top of the block with your hand and steady the pistons with your other and you should see the pistons start to go in (go slow and steady as it should need much force to get them in).
Once all rings are in the bore remove the compressors. Now this was the tricky bit, you need to rotate the crank slightly in order to raise the outer pistons so that you can get the compressors on these ones. But watch the inner ones, if they drop to low then the lower ring will come out of the bore and you have to start again (yes I found this out the hard way). I also put a spacer between the crankcase and block to keep it in position while I installed the compressors.
Now it's just a case of lowering the block in the same way as I did with the inner pistons - I managed to do all this on my own but if you can get an extra pair of hands to help it might make all the difference.
I seem to remember the oil ring was harder to compress than the others, so I wouldn't worry that there is something wrong with them (I assume you have checked the ring gap clearance before fitting them to the piston).
Hope this offers some help, there is no way I could of done this without the compressors (shame your not local as you would more than welcome to borrow them) as I did try and soon realized that I was pissing in the wind!
Best of luck with it and keep us posted.
Dave
