My newly organized workshop

Workshop or shed depending on the day.

Another project

Good old times

Back in college one of my favorite things to do was go on a moped ride with my boys around the drill field.

E50 Rebuild part 1

I spent some time today working on rebuilding the E50 engine that came off the yellow moped. I got a new crank, sealts, and bearings from treats.

This is my first time working on a E50 transmission. Even though I’m only half way through the rebuild, I must say its at least 10 times simpler then working on a ZA50. I’m excited to get the project finished to see how it runs.

I cleaned out the cases with some engine degrester

You can’t tell from the pictures, but they were much cleaner after some scrubbing

I kept the bearings on the counter shaft but replaced the seals

Stuck the crank in the freezer so that the bearings would slide on easier

and cooked the bearings in the oven

The frozen crank ready for the bearings

One bearing

Both bearings (and I burnt my finger turning it on)

Clutch back on and in the case

I swapped out the screws with allen bolts

Much better!

This is where I stopped

I used both of these websites to help me in the rebuild. I recommend reading them both if you are doing a similar rebuild.

• http://www.mopedarmy.com/wiki/Rebuild_a_Puch_E50_Engine
• http://e50rebuild.tumblr.com/

I still need to do a bunch to this engine like: 1) seal the cases with gasket material, 2) replace the stator and magneto, 3) clean the cases more

Metal Rescue (R) – Does it work?

With restoring a moped, a lot of the issues revolve around rusty parts. I scoured the internet for different products that help restore rusty parts. I’ve tried a whole bunch of things. Phosphoric acid works great, but is really serious stuff to work with. I came across a video on youtube for a product called Metal Rescue. To be honest, The ‘commercials’ on youtube made me a bit skeptical. They showed people soaking old rusty parts in Metal Ready and then hours later pulling out (what looked to be) brand new parts.

However, after reading some non-biased reviews of the product, it seemed like it really was good stuff. The only thing holding me back was the incredibly high price. I think it was like $40 for a gallon of the stuff shipped to my house). I splurged and bought some, and I’ll let you decide what you think of the results.

The test subjects:

The product:

Some more stuff to ‘Rescue:

The stuff soaking:

I left it overnight. The instructions said that after the liquid turns black, its all done working.

Here are some before and after pictures. Keep in mind I did some scrubbing after I took them out of the fluid. They came out covered in a thing black coating.

The sprocket

The crank. The surface rust was definitely removed, but the crank is still far from being useable

And the magneto. I had only half of it soaking, so you can really see the affects.

Overall I was pretty happy with the results, although the price was a little high for me to order another gallon anytime soon. I still have a 1/4 gallon left and I’m thinking it will work best on small things like nuts bolts and springs.

Treats to the rescue

There are a few places that I’ve used to buy moped parts.

• The Moped Junkyard is a good site thats close to me in Maryland.
• 1977 mopeds is a good store out of Michigan, but I sometimes find their site hard to navigage
• and treats by far has the largest selection, but some stuff can be expen$ive. But that’s also because its good stuff.

I decided to take advantage on treats’ no-shipping deal they had through the new year. This week the package came with my new exhaust, E50 crank, bearings, seals, E50 tools, and new cables for the green bike. Its a Christmas gift to myself.

Note the elmo book in the background

Meet the yellow maxi

I frequently check craigslist for any vintage mopeds for sale in my area. A few weeks ago I grabbed a Puch Maxi from someone near Baltimore for $70. Here are the pictures the guy texted to me before I went up to grab it.

The story with this thing is that it was left near the eastern shore during a big storm. Half of the thing must’ve been sitting under water for a while. You can almost see the line where there water must’ve stopped at. The engine was completely rusted, and it was very dirty.

Here is what the engine looked like when I took it off. I was hoping that the water didn’t get into the transmission, so all that would need to be repaired would be the crank.

This crank is a goner

Needs some cleaning for sure

I was lucky!!! The transmission showed no signs of water damage and looks beautiful. Its kind of interesting to see how different the crank looks from everything else inside.

That’s pretty

Now I need a E50 clutch puller to remove the clutch:

This could become a small project to work on during the winter months. Its going to require   investing some $$ on a new crank. Who knows, this could eng up going on the green bike if I can’t figure out how to get the ZA50 running well.