Technical two long feeler gages riveted together piston installation tool.

A bunch of years back, maybe two score and ten, I bought a tool that was two long ( 8-12"? feeler gages crossed at their center and riveted together.
Probably from JC Whitney.
I think it was for installing pistons into cylinders, but it might have been for installing rings on pistons.

It disappeared when the hoodlums busted into the garage around 1997 and grabbed my roll around tool box and a bunch more stuff.

Anyhow, I'm doing battle installing ~4" Ø fuel level /pump assembly into a rubber sleeve/seal gasket on a OT fuel tank. The rubber sleeve is supposed to be installed into the fuel tank hole first.
It fits very snug.

The edge of the sender assembly pilot diameter is nicely rounded, but it still initially presents nearly a flat square edge trying to enter the seal ID. The rubber seal just kind of pooches inwards and blocks entry no matter how hard an old man pushes, or dares to pry. The seal and sender are lubricated with very slippery long-lasting Lucas Assembly lube..

That old forgotten feeler gage tool kind of popped into my mind as a possible way to install the sender without having to remove the assembly ( a Chinese puzzle to twist and turn thru the small access door provided and to clear tank baffles etc) just to put a proper 15° chamfer where the rounded corner is now.

1 - am I imagining that tool?
2 - Was it intended as a piston installer, or ring installer?
3 - Are they available someplace today?

I have some long feeler gage in stock and will probably be making my own to try to get the danged sender/ pump installed this afternoon.

thanks,

Dan T

 

Pull strips. 12'' long . Our MAC tool truck dealer stocked every size available from .0005 up.

 

Transmission lip seal installer I had a couple just like your describing but they grew legs and disappeared over the years.

At work I will use the steel or nylon banding that comes on skids and crates to help get seals into place on hydraulic cylinders , just make sure there are no sharp edges !

 

Does your wife happen to have any of those flexible plastic cutting mats? I've got a couple used up ones in the shop, and have used them as funnels, shims, etc, and I think you could roll one of those into a shallow cone, stick one end into the rubber donut and then push the pump/sender through the center of the cone into the donut. That, or cut it into a few guide strips around the inner circumference of the donut to use as guides. They're only a few hundredths of an inch thick, and are tougher than boiled owl meat. Plastic milk jugs and plastic soda bottles are made of a similar material.

 

thanks !

Attached is a shot of what happens when an old dumb-*ss under-estimates the wicking power of Permatex Super Glue.
Mrs T wasted NO time texting a picture of my "situation" to an appreciative audience.

Dan T