Opened Up the Puch Today

[Dr. Frankenstein]

So I'm wandering around in the garage today, and this little Puch 250 I have on the back burner caught my eye - it'd been sitting there for way too long, and I'm trying to find a way to get the pistons unfrozen. Rusty is up on the slab, so I can't really put it up there until I finish with him, but I was curious as to how this bike looked inside.

Here she is, strangely enough, when I brought her home exactly one year ago today - (note the gas tank on the bench behind her). God, has it been a whole year already??
DSCN2079 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

Whipped out the borescope and took a peek inside the engine; the gears were a bit rusty, but nothing that made my eyes go wide, so of course since the devil finds work for idle hands, I picked up a screwdriver and got to work. Tapped the case with the rubber mallet and loosened it up a bit and this came out:
DSCN2470 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr
A nice mix of water, old oil and whatever those chunks are (old oil and schmutz, whatever that is); but after I convinced the side cover to come off it actually doesn't look too bad:
DSCN2465 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

Here she is where I found her, snugged up against a shed where the PO said she'd been since 'whenever'; but Hey! $50 is $50! And if anybody has one of those little round air filters next to the carb, please let me know:
Puch Barn Find by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

The clutch plates look a little rusty on the outside, but I have yet to take it off and apart to see what's what:
DSCN2467 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

It did leave a bit of a mess on the inside though, but not bad. I've seen WAY worse. That big hole in the middle is supposed to be there, that's the 'viewing port', which is covered by a little plate on the outside.
DSCN2469 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr
DSCN2466 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

The electrics look pretty good -
DSCN2070 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

The kickstarter mechanism looks great; gotta love that Austrian engineering...
DSCN2468 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

And that's about as far as I've gotten. Winter's coming, and my garage will soon turn into a deep freeze, but my goal - before that happens - is to drop the engine and get the dang pistons out (front is to the left).
DSCN2093 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr
The front one (on the left) is frozen/rusted in, and I've already tried PB Blaster, diesel and ATF, heat, harsh language, brute force and multiple combinations of all of those, but she just doesn't want to give it up. I want to take the engine out and light a fire in the top end, let it burn for a few hours, cool, and see if it'll budge with the use of the 'proper motivation,' probably involving a sledgehammer - or at least my 5-pounder.

There aren't too many of these things left, but I've done one of these before - here's my runner:
DSCN2057 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr
Don't let the looks fool you, this one has an upgraded coil, new wiring throughout, rebored head, new pistons, refurbished forks, new shoes and runs great; I kind of left it 'as is' on the outside because I like the patina. This newest one in the pics above I'm going to try to do a whole repaint, etcetera. Should be fun. The transmission only has six gears!

[Shadowjack]

Put whatever penetrating fluid you like in the cylinders, and just leave it over the winter. Go out and give each piston a couple of whacks with a big hammer through a block of wood every week. It may well move by spring. Time is your friend in these cases. And in the spring, if nothing has happened, heat the barrels with a propane torch.

[5speed]

acetone and atf is suppose to be a good home brew penetrating fluid.

[joecoolsuncle]

man! im diggin it! looks like built by aeramichi (spelling) like the fake harley 350. looks like you can easily restore also. i gonna be following this.

[joecoolsuncle]

acetone and atf is suppose to be a good home brew penetrating fluid.

it does work, PB Blaster works better and faster. but for needing alot of penetrant to soak and plenty of time, i have mixed ATF (ford) and acetone many many times. be sure and was in super hot water , dawn, and apply a coat of oil after breaking loose.

[Dr. Frankenstein]

Well, All I know is what I've done so far since I brought her home last year...
Soaked it in PB Blaster for a few weeks, pounded on it with a 5-lb sledge and a piece of really sturdy fresh-cut dense-wood tree branch - no help.
Tried the acetone and ATF, let it sit for a week or two, pounded on it again, added heat with a propane torch, pounded on it and let it sit - The fins on the head help dissipate the heat, I imagine - no help.
Tried diesel fuel/a little bit of gasoline - pounded on it - no help.
The piston in question is on its downstroke, so all the pounding I'm doing is acting as a downward force on the crankshaft, and I don't like beating on it, but the piston is probably toast anyway.

Here you can barely see the piston in its prison - yes, the head is a mess, nothing a good bead-blasting can't fix - but all that yellow/brown crap in there is in the exhaust port, and I'm betting that's spread to the piston, helping keep it in there:
DSCN2083 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

The other (rear) exhaust port is beautiful; that one is loose/slides in its bore:
DSCN2087 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

Meh - I'll get it, eventually. Like I have anything else to do...next I'm planning on dropping the engine and putting a wick in the stuck piston hole with a flammable mix of gasoline and ATF or something, lighting it and letting it burn for a few hours, let it good and hot, cool down and beat on it again, see what happens. The engine has to come out anyway, so why not, y'know? If that doesn't work I'll just take the whole engine apart, lift out the crank and head and try to press it out, although I haven't tried using a grease gun on it yet, I haven't figured out a way to get the grease in there without it coming out the top of the head. That method works on frozen brake pistons, so why not...

I even tried using a Tusk crankcase separator on it to give it some direct downforce - it broke the arms on the separator!
"Geez Rick...!"

Alert: As of Tuesday, November 29th, here's one that just popped up on Facebook, if anybody wants one: $500 OBO, in awesome shape! That's a bargain! All the badges and run stickers...It even has the key switch - you can see it in the headlight. Good thing I don't have any money
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/it ... _type=post

[ritalz]

Hard as that one seems to be stuck your maybe not going to get it free. The last time I had a motor like that it went to the recyclers. Not only the piston was stuck but also the lower end was stuck.

[Dr. Frankenstein]

Yeah, maybe - but it sure looks promising...
DSCN2101 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr
DSCN2108 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

[Lucien Harpress]

I almost wonder if it's worth tracking down somebody with a hydraulic press to get that out. If it hasn't unglued in a year, and you DO want to save it (and I agree you should), it might be time to take some drastic measures.

[Dr. Frankenstein]

I have my trusty Harbor Freight 12-ton in the garage I use for bearings, etc. I (may) have to get the whole head and crank out before I do that though - although the more I think about it, maybe not...just put the whole engine on it and see what happens. I'm just wondering what kind of ring I'll find in the head, and if I can hone it out, or if it's toast. I need to find a bead blaster too to clean up the cast iron head. (That I don't have!).

[Dr. Frankenstein]

A cold rainy day today here in Virginia, so what better place to be than the garage...? I have almost completely stripped the Puch down to the frame to start the restoration process. The stator looks pretty gnarly, but actually not too bad, it should clean up pretty well. At least the magnet wrapping is in decent shape:
DSCN2474 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

Same for the armature:
DSCN2475 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

But here's where you come in - here's the steering head - see that little silver nipple on the damping plate on the bottom circled in yellow...? And the silver knob at the top, again circled in yellow...?
Puch 250 Damper Plate by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

Well, that little nipple is actually the end of a long skinny bolt attached to the knob that's threaded on the end - here's a clearer shot of it - you can see the little hole that a cotter pin goes through...and that threaded end is rusted in there But Good!
DSCN2486 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

You'll notice the tang on the plate and the notch it's supposed to fit into, but when I turn the silver knob with it in there, it skates underneath the edge of the notch. So essentially I can't get enough of a grip on it to get enough torque on it to try to loosen it up.


It's supposed to be able to be unscrewed (or tightened, to dampen the steering as the case may be) by turning that silver knob at the top. This is the last thing I have to undo before I have the bike all apart and ready for cleaning, but as I mentioned it's bonded pretty well to that bottom plate. I've tried heat, PB Blaster, waiting, more heat, tapping it with a hammer and socket, more PB and harsh language trying to get that thing to turn, but it won't, and I can't get a grip on the plate or the silver knob, even with a pair of channel locks, enough to break it free. I'm afraid that if I torque it too much that little steel rod in there will break like Betty White's hip, and these parts are pretty hard to find these days. The bottom plate assembly is like a little 'sandwich', if you will, with a rubber gasket in between another plate on top of it, so heat may be destroying the rubber gasket too - not good. Any idea on how to get that plate to give it up without breaking that steel rod? I have so far squirted it with PB and left it to soak, but here's a pic of the setup - #24 at the bottom is that steel plate, and you can see the little rod coming down from the knob:
Puch 250 Steering Damper Assembly by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

[Francis]

Ouch! little rusty! There's a lot of guys on the CVMG ( Canadian vintage motorcycle group) that have parts for them. Look up the wanted/parts for sale on the site.
I believe you might get lucky!

[Dr. Frankenstein]

I finally got it - it wasn't as bad as I thought it was. Nice shiny threads! It put up one heck of a fight coming off though:
DSCN2487 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

The forks are 'okay' - that's the water that came out first, followed by the oil...they peed all over the floor, this is just the start...
DSCN2481 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

The neutral finder switch is pretty well Tango Uniform...
DSCN2477 (1) by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

Meh - just needs a coat of paint...(and some Bondo!).
DSCN2494 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

So let's dive right in, shall we...? This was just before the preliminary stripping - I went back and got rid of that white square there, it was just the old glue residue. The rust looks worse than it is; a little filler primer should help it nicely.
DSCN2491 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr
DSCN2499 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

And the other side...lot of work though - aircraft remover doesn't want to come out when the can gets cold; it was in the mid-40's...it still works a lot faster than Kleen-Strip stripper! That stuff just did not work, I had to spring for the Rustoleum Aircraft Remover; and even that seemed to take a lot longer than it used to, but still a lot faster than the Kleen-Strip. Maybe they changed the formula or something. I used to be able to spray it on like spray paint and it would lift the paint right off the frame; this newer stuff came out in a jet and I had to spread it around with a brush, then scrape it off or use a wire brush...what do you use for stripping paint?
DSCN2490 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr
DSCN2500 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

And I didn't like this - looks like a crack made by freezing and thawing ice...I filled it with bondo. The rest of the frame is in good shape though....
DSCN2492 by Dr. Frankenstein1, on Flickr

[Whiskerfish]

Last few resurrections I did had very nasty forks. Hard to get inside to scrub them out so I left the old seals in and filled them with kerosene then pumped them a number of times. Drained and refilled repeat until clean fluid came out.

[dontwantapickle]

Repairing a cracked frame with bondo. That's an "interesting" approach.
I'm not so sure that I would do it that way, but then... I ain't going to be the one riding it.