A right bodge

[Windmill]

Not MZ but thought you guys would like this, he may be out there fixing your next bike

Went over to a chap having problems repairing a late 70's Moby (less than 300 recorded miles), took info & special tools etc. Did all the usual, fuel, carb, points, timing and the rest, which he had mostly already checked. Started, revved high but then revs drop and dies which is what it was doing all along. Noticed it had a cork cylinder base gasket..hmm they are usually thin paper. Looked at head joint and it looked like it had two fitted Top end clearly had been off so started thinking oh dear. Dropped exhaust off and had a peek through the exhaust port (2 stroke of course). Piston nice, shiny, not scored - top ring looks fine, second ring does too, third ring groove with no ring in it??? and holes in the groove for an oil scraper ring they should only have two rings . Wedge shape head on piston recessed for valves to clear........ Pulled it out quick - head & barrel off and mystery solved.

It's got a 4stroke, probably Honda, piston fitted which was correct diameter but of course had no transfer ports. So someone had drilled the skirts and filed slots to act as transfer ports, not at the correct level but just where there was enough meat to do so. Piston was too long and must have hit the plug so they had fitted real thick base joint and two head joints to give it clearance. Of course the holes through the oil ring groove acted as transfer ports in all directions, how did it run at all????? beats me Laugh? I nearly wet myself

[DAVID THOMPSON]

that has to be the KING OF COBBLE JOBBS

dave

[Windmill]

Quite right Dave. Used to see a lot of stuff like that in the 60's but thought it had died out Beware - they are clearly still out there

[therealche]

Brilliant. Shame you didn't get any pictures. Sounds like a top notch bit of bodging!

[Windmill]

Should have taken the camera but I was expecting the usual simple fix Surprising how these basic little engines can prove difficult to even well experienced bods, guess we are all too used to fuel injected computerised stuff now.

[Linegeist]

I'll send you the bill for cleaning my screen and keyboard, shall I?

Brilliant!

[den]

To Think about it , !! To actually think doing that to get the bike going with only the parts available is quite clever , sounds like who ever did it almost pulld it off,Unless you just paid $500 for a service and repair,

[Windmill]

To be fair it looks like it was done by someone who wasn't totally clueless, but rather deranged The ports were reasonably neatly cut and I admit to fitting plenty thick and double gaskets way back, when someone had been too enthusiastic skimming the head etc The really sad thing, is that I reckon if he'd fitted a solid ring in the scraper groove it probably would have just about run ...........for a while. Port timing would have been out a bit and of course there were no ring pegs either in that piston, so it wouldn't have been long till the ends of the rings found the barrel ports

Pay for screen cleaning? I'm looking for him to pay my dry cleaning bill...............

[DAVID THOMPSON]

define "MOBY" for all of us who have not heard the word used to refer to a bike

over here on the west side of the "POND" it's often used as a nick name
for a really big man as in he's a whale of a fellow

from the Melville book "MOBY DICK"

dave

[Windmill]

A Really Macho 1960's bike....... like the blue one I put on the Newbie thread. A whole 50cc, belt drive and variable gears too Mobylette, soon to become Motobecane etc etc. Joking apart, 180mpg & chrome bored so last forever providing they are not abused - which they all were of course. With a whale of a fellow on board though would either collapse or just not go anywhere, there is a power boost via the pedals though............ Restored one originally belonging to my Mother and in the process amassed about 4 tons spares and another 4 bikes. Quite partial to the style, almost deco and always bring a smile to pedestrians faces when you get overtaken by a push bike, invariably next to a bus Queue!!!! Just a toy but petrol the price it is could enjoy a renaissance given 180 mpg btw have radio's too, D Day invasion receiver(dropped to resistance cells etc), Lancaster Bomber Radio and B40 Naval set from the post war Ark Royal. All working and used in the Garage & Mill

[Rhino-1]

A Really Macho 1960's bike....... like the blue one I put on the Newbie thread. A whole 50cc, belt drive and variable gears too Mobylette, soon to become Motobecane etc etc. Joking apart, 180mpg & chrome bored so last forever providing they are not abused - which they all were of course. With a whale of a fellow on board though would either collapse or just not go anywhere, there is a power boost via the pedals though............ Restored one originally belonging to my Mother and in the process amassed about 4 tons spares and another 4 bikes. Quite partial to the style, almost deco and always bring a smile to pedestrians faces when you get overtaken by a push bike, invariably next to a bus Queue!!!! Just a toy but petrol the price it is could enjoy a renaissance given 180 mpg btw have radio's too, D Day invasion receiver(dropped to resistance cells etc), Lancaster Bomber Radio and B40 Naval set from the post war Ark Royal. All working and used in the Garage & Mill

Awesome... Now lets see some piccies! We loves piccies!

[DAVID THOMPSON]

the popular one over here was an Allstate sold by SEARS company
it was a PUCH with pedals and the fellows would hot rod them
they were not slow
in fact they were so fast most states made them have a license

then there was the 1948 Harley hummer a very bad copy of the DKW rt125 pre ww2
the hummer was so bad it cured me of ever buying a harley
i learned to ride on the puch and dad had 2 of the hummers
his ran ok because he was a Machinist and fixed a lot of the problems
and i fixed the electrical which was very bad

dave
picture dates to 1956 to about 1965

if one sold for that price NOW you could not supply the demand

[Windmill]

We had those here too Dave but the most popular bar non was the Mobylette. Started in 1949 and were selling 750,000 a year by the 70's By the time of their demise in 2012 it is estimated they had sold over 30million What would Mr Yamaha etc give for sales figures like that- relating to just the one basic model? I used to sell my surplus on Ebay and believe it or not sent spares to most of Europe, New Zealand & Oz, South America and quite a lot to USA! There is a particular club in Bermuda I think who used to buy high compression heads/big carbs etc and had a tuning scene going on

Anyway, enough of the anorak, here's the pics Rhino. 1) Ark Royal 2) Lancaster 3) Invasion receiver usually now called Naafi receiver since they ended up playing music & news in the canteens.

[Windmill]

Almost forgot - there is even one for Chalks Can't remember where I came across this but I think it's US or Canada, check this out

I so Like it

[radiograf]

As we're showing mopeds, here's some I spotted in Holland last year.

They are Tomos, made in Yugoslavia, later models where sold via Woolworths! Seems the Dutch had a penchant for extended bars.