Hastings Rings

Geotze rings are good in my experience. Wouldn’t hesitate to use them.

B+Bogus said:

The last few sets of rings I got from Wassells were AE Goetze, UK made.
I concur with Kommando's post, the rather unconvincing heritage style 'Hepolite' boxings from Wassells originally had Hastings rings, but more recently they went over to Goetze.
AFAIK the rings were never Taiwanese, but I've been wrong before...

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I wanted to check myself so I asked directly. Wassell quit using Hastings rings in the Heoplite sets about 3 years ago due to supply consistency problems. They never did use Taiwan rings - I misunderstood when I asked before. Here is a part of their reply:

"At present we source all our ring sets from the Original UK manufacturer of Hepolite rings ( Heplex ) was their ring brand back in the 1980`s when they were part of the AE engine components group
The company still exists and has many OE customers but will only supply part numbers by production batch quantity so in effect not available from source direct to the end user.

Sourcing quality ring sets commercially in 2020 you have very few options India / Taiwan sourced rings are sold by many of our competitors with JCC pistons and often miss sold as UK made / Genuine parts when they are re packaged , Many of the other vendors selling JCC pistons will use Taiwan sourced rings which do not work with all applications and quality is inconsistent."

marshg246 said:

Jim,

You've posted twice in this thread and have confused me twice. I'm not sure - are you saying that all standard rings for Norton are bad because they are thick? What pistons/rings do you recommend for the masses riding street, not race, Nortons?

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I'm saying the stock type Norton pistons are short lived because the ring lands wear out - and that happens because the rings are too thick. I'm a little pissed because I just had another engine (not a Norton) blow because the ring lands loosened up - when everything else in the motor looked cherry. Long ago I had this happen to my Norton.

I don't use pistons with thick rings in my Norton anymore. I use pistons with thinner rings. The modern pistons come with thinner rings and tighter ring land clearances. Modern pistons are available now for Nortons and I'll never go back. My motor is still tight after over 50,000 street miles.

The modern pistons are more expensive and are available from only a few sources. If you want names send me a PM.