The Harley Hummer Club

I put my engine together today and everything went great until I noticed I had put the crank in backwards. Luckily it came apart easily enough but I am thinking I may have to turn the piston 180 degrees or not. My new piston isn't marked showing front and also doesn't have the bottom skirt cutout that my original piston had.Any Ideas?

If your motor is a 165 the piston cutout doesn't matter. If it's a 175 it does. The 175 has a longer stroke and the cut-out is required to clear the flywheel. If it's a 175 the cut-out goes at the rear. A 165 piston can be modified (cut-out added. Check clearances) and used.

On all two stroke engines, the location of the ring pegs is very important. These keep the ends of the rings from catching in a port.

The typical arrangement is for the pegs to be located between the inlet and transfer ports. I expect this is true for the Hummer class of Harley 2 strokes, but you need to check on this to be sure.