Projects

Since the new year I have been working on three projects, one long term and two short term. Unemployment has given me more time to work on the huge pile of stuff I never finish. 

puch maxi rebuild

In...July of 2024 my puch maxi was running worse than normal which was notable. I assumed that the bike had lost compression and maybe putting new piston rings in would solve the problem, so I took the engine apart and discoverd the cylindar wall had worn out, and after about 7 years of continuous use the engine needed a top end rebuild. However, I also needed a new crankshaft - it seemed as though one of the engine bearings had given up the ghost - plus it was just time. I had been using this bike pretty much constantly for 7 years and it needed a complete rebuild.

So yeah, I then spent about...$600 in parts. New crankshaft, bearings, seals, and a total change in the top end. I got the Treats 70cc reed kit, which is a bunch of parts that the moped parts store threw together which work well together. I wanted a different carb - I have been using a 19mm PHBG forever, and wanted to see if using a Mikuni VM20 would make a difference. (The Mikuni is MUCH easier to work with at least). I did the initial step of taking the engine off the bike and disassembling it.

THEN I had to move because my house was getting put on the market. THEN I got laid off. THEN a million other things happened. Once the dust settled I had started making small advances in putting the engine back together. 

To assemble the crankshaft and bearings you have to heat the bearings and then press fit them onto the crank, usually after putting the crankshaft in a freezer. The tempurature difference allows them to come together with a little persuasion from a hammer. 

Then the engine sat for a while and I started putting more parts on. The top end, assembling the reed valve stack and intake so I can test fit the carb. The power coil. It was around this time I started getting hella migranes from all the stress I was under and had to stop for a few weeks. The worst part of this was trying to make a gasket for the reed block. There were multiple gaskets for other parts, but not for the reed block against the cylinder. 

I reached my low point on the rebuild a few weeks later when I tried to put new springs in my new clutch, dropped the clutch, and broke it. My roommate gave me a new one - which felt a lot better - but I still needed some random bits and shims to fit it correctly. I also had to bend an old C clip into place in order to fit the clutch without it slipping. after all this drama the engine was mostly done and just had to get put back on the bike.

From here the bike stayed on the work bench for another few weeks while I finished up some random stuff. I reconnected the wiring and repositioned a few things. I put the pipe back on, the chain, mostly little things here and there. Finally I had one big day of progress and put the last bits of the bike together so I could take it off the bench for the first time in months. 

6 months after turning the bike off for the last time, it was back on it's wheels and I could try starting it all over again. Starting a bike after a rebuild is always a little scary, because if you did it wrong a bunch of parts are ruined. After about 15 minutes trying to crank over the bike, it fires up, and runs like shit because of a massive air leak - which I later discover is from the home made gasket. Well it runs.