After seizing up my Magnum and taking a 2 mile walk of shame home in November, I sat my MKII in timeout, which is an excellent opportunity for a moped to think about what it has done, as it gets to watch the other mopeds go out for rides, while it has to wait to be fixed. The time has come for me to reclaim
my title, so I brought the engine inside. After the seize, it came unstuck easily, and this was at least the 3rd seize on this cylinder. You may recall when I put it together last year, the piston was having clearance issues in the rear of the skirt.
I sanded the skirt enough to let the piston drop clear of the exhaust port, but it still wouldn't fall out of the skirt. I decided to run it anyway, and at least one of these seizes are the result of too tight of a clearance in the skirt.
and you can see some of the awesome drag marks of melted ring smeared across the piston.
It took me about an hour of gently prying, cleaning and sanding to coax the piston back into run-able condition. A bit of heavy sand paper and some lighter polishing paper let that piston drop right through, and the rings have been liberated from the grooves, and are once again, springy. A fresh hone of the cylinder, a nice coat of Amsoil and I'll be back on the road in no time. I am going to powder coat my exhaust and intake since I've got them off the frame. No after pictures today though, sorry. Just look for me at the front of all the other Metra80 magnums.
I've got the motor all cleaned up and ready to go, and it isn't raining outside. Maybe I'll go swap it back on the Magnum. The flywheel cover is a Jollipop copper that got a little heavy and too dark for my taste. Candie colors are hard to get evenly, but I suppose I'll get there someday. Now that my obligatory moped content is out of the way, we went Go-karting on Saturday, and here is a nice picture of those swell jump suits they let us wear. This would be yours truly lifting Mr. Knarpsworth, who also, had the fastest lap time of our whole group. Congrats!
