The other day I picked up the Metra80 large port that had been chilling in the display case at Seattle Mopeds. It was a bit dusty, and it had been sitting there for quite a while. I decided to go Metra80 for the magnum for a few reasons.
Magnums need big cylinders, no little maxi cylinders
Metra80 has a beautiful matching head
Metra80 works well with my existing intake for the Parma kit
Metra80 will make good power, but not so much power I destroy my 2 speed every few months
So as I look at the dykes ring that rides right atop the edge of the piston, it looks rather large to me. Decided I should measure the ring end gap. To do that, place your ring in the cylinder, and then press it down half way between the top of the cylinder and the exhaust port, using the base of your piston so that it is level. Unfortunately, the metra80 skirt is already trimmed and not level, so I had to get out my caliper and measure down to ensure it was level. With the ring level, insert a feeler gauge into the gap until it fits just inside without binding. My gap was .002 in (.051mm) which I am quite certain is waaaaaaay to small. So perhaps I got a wild ring or something, but I feel if I put it together as is I'm going to snag a ring quite quickly. Once the heat builds up, that ring expands and the ends will push into each other causing all kinds of binding and calamity. So I'm going to do a little research and widen my gap, and I will of course, keep you posted.
First of all, go check out this sweet 1977 custom. Wow! That's all I can say.
puch homoet 8p performance pipe
puch & tomos moped exhaust gasket
puch moped front sprockets - 17 tooth
leleu rear moped sprockets for puch, peugeot, motobecane - 36T
puch ZA50 2 speed shift dampers by motion left mopeds
puch moped points with wire
So I've made a swap-a-roo with a guy from Chicago. I sold him the old E50 off the Maxi Taxi, carb and all, and he gave me some monies and has shipped me a ZA50. This engine will be getting some new pucks and an electrical rebuild, in combination with a Puch HT cylinder that I'm going to attempt to port, and once it's all together, it will replace the E50 on my wife's green Maxi. As we've established, my BFW has a hard time getting up hills here in Seattle, so I think the two speed is a good choice. A ported stock cylinder will be plenty of zip for her, if she cooks along at 35mph she will be happy as a clam.
Things to look forward too on the soon to be re-named Apocalypse Ponies Mopeds! blog:
ZA50 puck install
ZA50 Metra 80 install
Maxi Taxi stock rebuild
Swinger1 Seat modification and Fender mounting
Enjoy waiting while these things come into play over the next months!
I decided it's too sad to see my Swinger1 sit on the balcony with no wheels on it, so I brought it in today and Ian was kind enough to give me a set of brakes. Why would my bike be sitting from no brakes? Because I stole them for one of my other bikes. It's always downhill when you start to cannibalize your bikes, but I wouldn't have been riding the Swinger1 in the rain anyway. So here is a shot of the brake shoes to explain why it's a good idea to knock the glaze off, one is before, the other is after, and I'll bet one stops alot better than the other. Take a medium grit sand paper (I used 180) and just give it a nice light push to pull that glaze right off. Do the same for the brake drum. Don't forget to lube your cam on the brake plate, a little bit of sillicone lube is what I use, because it comes in a tube and works well to not make a mess. I want to put the seat down a little further and get a more solid mount on it. As it sits, it's a wee bit back too far and if you scoot all the way back I'm just afraid of it snapping off with some of these pot holes around Seattle. So that means chop the post a little bit and go bother Mike Mike to use his welder to adjust my seat pan some.
I'm also having trouble with my internal ignition coil, it makes a decent looking spark, but it's a little too white for my taste, which as I understand it, usually means poor grounding, and it also does something peculiar which you can notice in this video. I'll be diving back into solving this mystery as soon as I'm done posting this. Enjoy!
My moped shenanigans have been limited recently due to being a big cheap-o and not having any money to stimulate our moped economy. Well, I've got my Bravo on the sales block and it looks like tomorrow it will be happily adopted into its new home, and I've struck a deal that will ensure both money for parts, and projects to handle that would be of mild interest to people who follow the HQ. At this point, I would like to commend those who try and blog about mopeds and never get past 3 or 4 posts. It seems like fun, but then you realize, I never feel like updating or don't have anything to show. If I can offer advice, show when you make big mistakes, cause everyone makes those and then we would have unbelievable content daily!
I replaced the fork shims on my wife's maxi because the old lower had broken and caused it to vibrate out the bottom end and then rattle when the brakes were applied. Should have taken a picture, and it would have been much more interesting to hear about. The green maxi could use a cleaning, she is a far dirty cry from the show winning ped she used to be. I think the plan for that bike is to get a transplant from those hokey old E50's to what she deserves, a ZA50. The frame was originally a 2 speed, and my big fat wife needs help getting up these Seattle hills! Stay tuned! (Or come back about two weeks from now when I update again!)
It's been a while since I've posted, so let me bring you up to speed. After about 50 miles of notched variator, one of my already cracked plastic caps that sit on the variator weights cracked in half and flew out, causing the weight to wedge itself in the moving cheek so it was stuck in high gear. This happened while we were on a long ride, naturally, so I limped home, pushing the weight back down and resetting my variator manually at every stoplight. Thanks to Travis (who also is now featured on my links section) I got some new caps, and lubed them real good this time around, and the variator seems to operate much more smoothly.
I've also pending payment sold my Vespa Bravo, which should free up some funds for my Magnum and for a personal side project that has nothing to do with mopeds.
Here are some pictures of my old Anderson Indiana days, when my Honda Express was my best set of wheels (except for my awesome van, Goldzilla) and I used to love to take it grocery shopping. Here are some pictures of two different trips to the grocery store.
Perhaps one of the least well documented and easiest mods to do for your hobbit is to create what I like to call "The overdrive". Pull off the variator, and notch the outer cheek. The only special tools you need are a large crescent wrench or perhaps a pipe wrench and either a big bench vice or a thin set of channel locks to grip the shaft so you can loosen the outer cheek variator nut. Once off, a hack saw quickly notches the aluminum, and then make a nice straight line with a dremel cut off tool, and then simply snap it off with a vice grips. Use a little bit or a hand file to clean up the edges, and reassemble after a good cleaning with brake cleaner. I would have taken the weight retainers out, but i stripped 3 of the 6 phillips screws. Why do the Japanese love phillips head screws? 50% failure when you use a crappy screw driver like me. After I got this thing back on, I thought perhaps I'd gone alittle too far and taken out too much material, but one trip down the road let me know I was okay. The weights pop out and the bike surges into overdrive with the belt as physically high as it can ride. Luckily, my rear spring is good enough to pull the weights back in after such a ginourmous variation. I love my Hobbit!
To do that, place your ring in the cylinder, and then press it down half way between the top of the cylinder and the exhaust port, using the base of your piston so that it is level. Unfortunately, the metra80 skirt is already trimmed and not level, so I had to get out my caliper and measure down to ensure it was level. With the ring level, insert a feeler gauge into the gap until it fits just inside without binding. 
My gap was .002 in (.051mm) which I am quite certain is waaaaaaay to small. So perhaps I got a wild ring or something, but I feel if I put it together as is I'm going to snag a ring quite quickly. Once the heat builds up, that ring expands and the ends will push into each other causing all kinds of binding and calamity. So I'm going to do a little research and widen my gap, and I will of course, keep you posted.
