1974 - Puch Maxi N (Hardtail)

Good luck with restoring it, these are brilliant bikes and good fun to ride (especially when bored out to 70cc).

Heres one I used to have

I only re-sprayed the rear 'swing arm' bit of the frame, i found Vauxhall flame red is a very good match to the original paint and you can get it from Halfords.

Well, I got home today & Decided to strip the Maxi Down & Put the engine in a bath of Diesel to attempt to unseize it in a week or so.

Whilst doing so I thought it's a good time to have a look at the bearings in the rear wheel, and to check the rear brakes. It turns out there are quite a few bearings missing, So they'll have to be replaced.



My first task was to remove the rear wheel, So I could remove the stubborn seized chain, to get the engine off the bike.

The Bolts holding the wheel on were incredibly tight, So I took a piece of box section and put it over my ratchet, to extend it, thus making it easier to put more force on.



Once I had the wheel off, I put the frame upside down to allow me to pull the bolts out of the engine and pick it up, instead of the more traditional 'Pull the bolts, and let the engine drop' method I've seen people use.

This picture shows the real true state of the Moped !



Have a look at all this mess on the engine !



It looks like there has been water stood in it at one point.



Well anyway, Onto the wheel !



When the brake drum was off the wheel, I decided to clean it up with a brass brush.



I cleaned the inside, Although I will probably put new brake shoes on it when I replace the wheel bearings.



Since it was cold, and I was hungry I decided to put the engine in the bath of diesel, and finish for the night.

(Sorry for the bad picture, All of the pictures were took by my phone, and oil & Phone screens don't match very well)



Thanks for looking.
Stephen

Oh and a cheap 70cc kit, 17mm bing carb and a 50cc standard puch head makes for a very torquey , and high revving engine.. Mine pulled a reliable 60mph ;D

If you havnt ridden one already, A 50cc standard engine with no mods is pretty damn slow.. Even a high compression head , better gearing and a cheap larger carb will see a reliable 40mph..

The key is reliable.. Guys on Mopedarmy can get silly speeds out of these. But they go bang every two seconds..
So make sure you don't go to the edge of what the 70cc kit will allow... Or try screaming an engine on old bearings... Remember a 2 stroke produces alot of power high up the RPM's so youll be screaming it alot

after seeing this style of maxi, especially the orange one i now want one to make a cafe racer style thing out of....enjoy

smopeds.blogspot.co.uk/2011_03_01_archive.html

It's extremely rough !

There's rust everywhere, I was grinding some bits today, and cleaning up the rust. Once i get my handlebars off, i will be taking the forks off & Using electrolytic rust removal to clean the frame & Prime it ready for painting.

I don't think i'll be putting a performance exhaust on it, I have de-restricted the standard exhaust & i think i will be replacing that, But not for a while, (I'd rather spend on getting the engine working to my standards, before i think about cosmetics & speed upgrades)

I've joined moped army & Have read freds guide, i did find it helpful, but i do have a bit of experience with stripping down engines.

Thanks for the advice

Stephen

Well after still being unable to get the frame apart, I lubricated it and decided to leave it to soak.

So i thought i'd get the fenders ready for electrolysis.

I used a bicycle trailer with a tarpaulin as a big bucket to hold them in, With a server power supply providing the 12 Volts at up to 30 Amperes.



I put the front fender in first, as it was the rustiest.



Has anybody got any ideas on how to paint the fenders, I was thinking of simply using normal primer and then painting it either the same colour as the bike or the original silver. I'm just a bit worried of rocks flicking up, or other debris and scratching the underneath and causing rust.

Stephen.

Can you still get the paint over stone chip that they used to use on the lower half of 90's vauxhalls that would be pretty ideal for the inside of them, I really want to see what it comes out like from that bath. What solution are you using?
Thanks