If I am not mistaken, if you look in the ring channels in the piston, you will find little alignment pins, which is where you should line up the ring gaps (i.e. align the pins between the ring gaps).
If you need a picture of the "pins" in the cylinders, let me know. I have a parts powerhead that I can snap an image of. But they are pretty easy to see.
You have to rearrange your thinking when working on a 2 cycle engine. Pinned rings, air tight crankcase
and seal function are features not common to 4 cycle motors
With a 4 cycle motor the crankcase is what you dump the clean oil into and drain the dirty oil out of...
With a 2 cycle it is an air tight chamber which the
charge is drawn into under negative pressure and forced out of under positive pressure. A bad seal
on a 4 cycle engine probably means you add oil more
often...on a 2 cycle it makes for hard starting
and poor running. Work on an outboard motor and
then work on a lawn mower engine and difference
will sneak up on you...installed a crankcase
seal backwards
Louis
