[Grand Designs] project - my ETZ 250

[Puffs]

Wow... that sounds demotivating.
Sorry to hear of all the troubles you're having with this, don't quite understand why...

[dirtsurfer]

Never mind, I'll get to the bottom of it eventually.

[parrbd]

You can drop it off at my place if you want. I have plenty of spare time.

[dirtsurfer]

Well its been a while. I have not been able to identify what the problem with my gearbox was. I decided to reassemble with all the original gearbox parts.
I fired it up again today and tried out the gearbox. I rode the bike around the block a couple of times. Finding 1st gear is difficult and feels like it has jumped out of first gear once or twice.

[Puffs]

'Something is wrong...' but what?
Possible: bearings different width, or not fully seated, thrust washer wrong thickness/fallen out during assembly, selector shaft bent, forks bent, forks swapped, ...

Hope you find it.

[Blurredman]

First gear can indeed be difficult to find.

Just to recall- you did use either 80/90 GL4, or 10w40/20w50 motor oil?

Perhaps you need to take it for alonger ride to warm up the oil and get aquanted with more detail into what is wrong?

[Blurredman]

Ever find out why ? Or has the whole MZ debarcle been put in the back of your mind and the MZ in the back of the garage?

[dirtsurfer]

Ever find out why ? Or has the whole MZ debarcle been put in the back of your mind and the MZ in the back of the garage?

I did not find out (to my satisfaction) why. The bloke I sold it to said that the aftermarket crankcase drain plug was interfering with the selector fork and something else which I cant remember.


Yes after all that time and energy I sold the little bugger-

I had to make some hard decisions based on available cash and garage space, longer term commitments and my hobbies comming under intense scruitiny by my darling wife. There was no way in the world I was going to recoup anywhere near the $$ I put into what was essentially a pile of rubbish when I purchased it.

I had previously called dibs on a 1982 BMW R100 RT which had been tucked away in a shed since 1993 and the owner finally wanted to settle on the deal so to make room in the garage for another airhead BMW
Off she goes


There was no way in the world I was going to recoup anywhere near the $$ I put into the little ETZ which was essentially a pile of rubbish when I purchased it. But it did give me a feeling of joy; like finding a destitute animal abandoned in the bush, taking it home, nursing back to reasonable health then setting it free again. Also it helped pay for half of this lovely old girl




Parting with the little ETZ has left a yearning in my heart which did not go away with the passing of time

[Blurredman]

Hi Dirtsurfer.

That's very unfortunate. I wonder if you would have kept the bike if you had found the potential problem yourself.

Me: I'm not entirely sure about the drain plug interferenace issue.. I mean.. you did use the bolt that had a spring and a ball on the front, and the actual 'drain' bolt was just a standard bolt (maybe with a magnet) further to the rear of the engine... ?

That's really odd and I'd be entruiged as to whether that was really the problem. I suppose we'll not know now.



Anyway- I'm glad you at least experienced what little MZ experience you could, considering you're in Austrailia.. I know there aren't too many out there..



Good luck with your new BMW purchase!

[Puffs]

Yes it's a pity the MZ never worked out for you Max, and if ever you find out the cause please share it for the benefit of others. That oil plug is just a bolt (indeed some with a magnet), and unless it is excessively long, I don't quite see how that would cause these problems.

I'm happy you still found some joy in the exercise:

But it did give me a feeling of joy; like finding a destitute animal abandoned in the bush, taking it home, nursing back to reasonable health then setting it free again.

Enjoy surfing the dirt, as well as your new BMW (on the road presumably)!

[dirtsurfer]

Yes it's a pity the MZ never worked out for you Max, and if ever you find out the cause please share it for the benefit of others. That oil plug is just a bolt (indeed some with a magnet), and unless it is excessively long, I don't quite see how that would cause these problems.
...

The sump plug magnet was broken, I noticed after my third stripdown but at that stage I concluded that if it was indeed interfering with something in the gearbox the foiling projection was broken off (the gearbox plug). Maybe I was wrong - I have another one to strip down now so I will pay special attention to the clearances around the gearbox drain plug and the moving components of the gear box. The other thing the new owner said was wrong is the star shaped index that sits on the end of the selector drum was around the wrong way. I'm pretty sure I checked that as it is a well documented issue.

The new owner did send me a picture of the bike when he said he had it sorted; a short time after he picked it up

[Puffs]

Nice!
Few more decals maybe. And I'd prefer a standard exhaust, but that's just personal.

[Blurredman]

That Blue does look nice though. It's actually not too far off one of the original shades they were sold with (in mainland europe).