How at ES250 winter project turned into a TS150

So there I was on my MZ TS150 (Sheba), cruising about the local classic vehicle rally which spreads out over two villages, when this gentleman walks over as I’m setting off and compliments me on how well it’s running. It turned out he had a couple of MZ’s taking up space in his shed which he wanted for a Vincent he was restoring and might I be interested in them. On inspection one of them turned out to be an old. ES250 Trophy sports with the square headlamp cowling. Id fancied one of these for quite some time so I defiantly wanted it. He also had a TS250 lying against a wall which a mate of his owned but had lost interest in, which I also got at a very reasonable price for a project as yet unknown.

A few days latter I borrowed a mates van and took the requisite folding paper over and the ES was squeezed into an already too full garage to await winter and the finishing of other projects. The poor TS250 ended up having to join a TS125 and other stuff outside next to the garage but in a fairly sheltered position.

Now, skip forward a few months and it’s MOT time. I have two bikes on the road at the moment, my TS150 and my chop a GS550 and they both get their Mot’s a week apart. I popped a £5 in the Gs and went for the MOT some 20 miles away and came back with fuel to spare. The next week I did the same on the MZ and off I went. Both passed ok but on the way back with the MZ I was surprised to have her splutter and run out some 6 miles from home.

Theirs no way it should uses more fuel than the 550, so once home on reserve I started to investigate how a 100 mpg bike was now doing something like 40 mpg. I immediately suspected the crank case main bearing seals and removed the generator to investigate. What I found gave me a bit of a shock. The end of the crank could be moved by finger tips a good 1/16th of an inch each way. It certainly was a testament as to how much it takes to stop one of these engines, and she was running very smoothly.

So that’s how instead of finishing my chop and then a leisurely restoration of the ES250 over the winter, I’ve ended up doing a complete strip down of the TS150 as a priority it being my main mode of getting about to shops etc through traffic. This is including a lot of the running gear as its been at least 17 years and no idea of how many miles (the speedo having been replaced more than once) since she really had a good birthday and if its worth doing a job you might as well do it properly.

Incidentally all the parts for the rebuild including piston, rebore and gearbox lay shaft, to mention some of the dearer items, only came to just over the 200 quid mark, thanks largely to Fred Rogers exhalant service and advice.

This page added..22/06/07