That’s the new box. They’ve all been like that for about a year or so now
Piston Question
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Your post got me to thinking.......so I dug out a new but older Meteor piston for a 272XP and did some comparing. I looked at the boxes.... totally different box design but more important was the lack of "Made in Italy" anywhere on the new box and yet the older box had "Made in Italy" plainly printed on two sides. I went deeper....the new piston had the wristpin and ring packed separately in plastic bags marked "Made in Italy"......the older one had the ring in, like a waxed paper bag with no printing at all. Deeper still the 272 piston was clearly marked "ITALY" cast into the inside of the piston........the new one did not...it had MP in a rectangle cast on the inside.
Looks to me like the Caber ring and wristpin were of Italian make ....but ....perhpas not the piston.......seems to be a "Assembled In Italy from foreign parts" kinda thing.........
Thats worth looking into.
25.4mm = 1 inch
Calipers are a crude way to measure things, and I use old USA Starrett mechanical ones. If you want to measure 0.001" use a micrometer.
Going the way of what happened to Tecomec.
Buy up new old stock Meteor before they are gone......
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I agree calipers are not what to use when accuracy is needed......but in this case this digital unit was close enough to show the issue. I also have Starrett mechanical ones scattered around my woodworking shop and a couple Brown& Sharp dial type as well.....they get daily use when I'm in production.
This is depressing if this is the direction Meteor is heading.......my supspicion is this piston is either from the far east or India......don't know what the cast MP means.
FWIW the Meteor I just got for the 266 I just done was in the green and white box with Italy marked on it.
I think it’s just a fuggup that made it through. Your next 50 will be fine
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I believe you're right. But if they are not made in Italy that begs the question......Which ones are and which are not...creates more questions than answers.....
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Piston replacement should be here Monday......hopefully this one is better than the last.
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So....it's Monday and the new replacement piston arrived. It is exactly the same as the first one. Same taper in the same place. So I did what Mark suggested first thing........contacted Meteor Pistons in Italy directly ....gave them all the numbers and what seems like an issue to me. I asked them if this is the way these pistons are supposed to be or a mfging issue.......and if it's meant to be this way to please explain why these are the only pistons I've encounted that are made this way.
Waiting on a reply.......
Hope reply is not we are waiting for China to get back to us.
dukes offer Tiwanese pistons that are good quality
He went to them based on manufacturing.
Not sure why you tagged me about that. I also have been told from a good source that at least one version is not good quality. But I'm not going into all that, I know Chris and wish him nothing but the best.
I've not purchased from, but phone conversations they seem OK, even if they sell from western Pacific rim places.
At least you get to talk to an American, not on hold,.........
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Been doing a little hunting to find more info on the "MP" piston in the pic......or any info pertaining to "MP"
Hard to find much info but it appears that this stands for "Moto Power Conversion" which again "appears" to make their own pistons, rings and cyls for primarily small 2 stroke motor bikes and it seems they're are located in Manilla, Phillipines.
Hard to find much info but it appears that this stands for "Moto Power Conversion" which again "appears" to make their own pistons, rings and cyls for primarily small 2 stroke motor bikes and it seems they're are located in Manilla, Phillipines.
Definitive Dave mentioned a few years back that hiway cylinders and Meteor cylinders were cast in the same plant. Hiway stayed in Taiwan to get plated. Meteor got plated in Italy. There’s always been a small quality difference between hiway pistons and meteor pistons in my eyes. Meteor always had the better Caber rings also. I’ve heard recently that hiway is casting meteor pistons now. No idea as to the truth of it, but might help your search. It would also make sense why they don’t say MP inside any longer
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Sorry I let this lapse....couple weeks of covid and the general lack of energy after that for a couple more weeks had me down.
So......NO....Meteor did not return my emails....tried two different times with the same lack of response. I was courteous and calm in my correspondence but very interested in some information on this subject. They either ignored me or didn't want to talk about it, so I had to try and figure it out best as I could.
I started by putting the piston in the bore with the crown more or less even with the bottom of the ex port. This put the bottom of the skirt out past the bottom of the cyl about 4 MM......this is the bottom reverse tapered section which starts about 6.5MM above the bottom of the skirt. This positions the correct piston diameter about 2.5MM up the bore.... correctly supporting the piston in the cyl bore. Now it seems to me that if the piston skirt were tapered the same all the way to the bottom to the measurement of 49.97 mm this would be out of the bore at BDC and the piston would be ever so slightly loose in the bore whereas by moving the the correct diameter up from the bottom 6.5MM the piston skirt would be supported properly at that point.
That's how I rationalized it anyway and I put the saw together but haven't run it yet. I have to work up some firewood in the next couple days so will see how it runs.
This not the only thing I find with this piston that is undesirable. The lower wristpin bosses are bulky and impede flow compared to the original Gilardoni piston. Another thing I noticed was that on the inside of the piston there were windows partially cast into interior walls of the piston, leading me to believe this is a modified windowed piston rather than a dedicated non-windowed piston for this open port cyl.
Overall this is the first Meteor I've used that I am not happy with the piston or the communication from Meteor.
So......NO....Meteor did not return my emails....tried two different times with the same lack of response. I was courteous and calm in my correspondence but very interested in some information on this subject. They either ignored me or didn't want to talk about it, so I had to try and figure it out best as I could.
I started by putting the piston in the bore with the crown more or less even with the bottom of the ex port. This put the bottom of the skirt out past the bottom of the cyl about 4 MM......this is the bottom reverse tapered section which starts about 6.5MM above the bottom of the skirt. This positions the correct piston diameter about 2.5MM up the bore.... correctly supporting the piston in the cyl bore. Now it seems to me that if the piston skirt were tapered the same all the way to the bottom to the measurement of 49.97 mm this would be out of the bore at BDC and the piston would be ever so slightly loose in the bore whereas by moving the the correct diameter up from the bottom 6.5MM the piston skirt would be supported properly at that point.
That's how I rationalized it anyway and I put the saw together but haven't run it yet. I have to work up some firewood in the next couple days so will see how it runs.
This not the only thing I find with this piston that is undesirable. The lower wristpin bosses are bulky and impede flow compared to the original Gilardoni piston. Another thing I noticed was that on the inside of the piston there were windows partially cast into interior walls of the piston, leading me to believe this is a modified windowed piston rather than a dedicated non-windowed piston for this open port cyl.
Overall this is the first Meteor I've used that I am not happy with the piston or the communication from Meteor.
Sucks that it’s like that. That’s just a windowed piston without the windows cut in it
