restoration of 1981 TS250/1A (?)

[sipelip]

Hi. A couple of years ago I bought a 1981 TS250/1A (or so I thought) and have finally gotten around to beginning the restoration process. My son is very interested in the cold war and has a collection of East German uniforms and other items, which is an interest I share with him. Therefore restoring the bike back to its former glory, is a perfect father-son project for us. He is only 16, so he can't drive it for a couple of years, but he doesn't mind - and neither does his mum!

I have never really worked much on motorbikes, but I am fairly experienced working on cars and mopeds, so I reckoned the MZ project would be a good learning experience for both of us, and also a nice 'warm up' to restoring a 1971 Trabant P601A. As we have begun dissasembling the bike, we have stumbled upon a number of questions and really need to gather more information about the specifics of the NVA-variant, before doing the rebuild.

After studyinbg the bike I quickly realized that it is a bit hard finding precise and detailed information about the NVA-models online, so I might need to buy som books. Can anyone recommend som good books or perhaps websites which go into detail with this model?

I also checked the VIN-number in order to see if I could learn more about the bikes history. The number is in the 879xxxx area, which apparantly is a ts250 'erzatzrahme' or spare frame. But since it is first registered in 1981 - 5 years after that model was discontinued. and also based on the engineblock, I suspect that a ts250/1A NVA-bike with a broken frame, was rebuilt by the military, onto my spare frame. It is just a guess, but maybe someone knows of distinguishing features on the frame, that only the NVA used? Can anyone see from the pictures whether I have the 5-speed gearbox, confirming that it is a /1 engine?

Apart from the NVA, the TS250A was apparantly also used by the MdI (Ministry of Interior) for police work. I am a bit confused about excactly how the different versions of the TS250A and TS250/1A were equipped and painted. Any good ressources I could study up on?

As the pictures show, there are a few parts missing, and the strichtarn-sidebag, isnt the correct bag. But there are a lot of parts which seem specific to the military models, so I am quite confident that the bike has done service with the NVA. Can anyone enlighten me further, as to how I can learn more about this?

As a final question, I am wondering about the correct colour. I have som litres of the proper NVA-green TGL2425 Chlorbunagrün, which matches trucks and Trabants prefectly, but it doesnt seem to be the one used on the bikes. The color is quite close but the original paint on the MZ is more glossy than on the othe NVA vehicles. Does anyone know anymore detail about the correct paint - I am not 100% satisfied with RAL 6003.

Anyway thanks for letting med join the forum, I'll post pictures of, and comments on my progress along the way - and probably a lot of questions as well!

[Blurredman]

Hello and welcome.

Always nice to see new faces.


I don't really know anything regarding the TS models- but that bike you have there, NVA or not looks very good condition-what do you intend to do-? Completely strip it and the engine etc or just paint everything nva colours?

[Puffs]

Following a biased and flawed moderator choice (someone posting aggressive personal attacks is rewarded, while my technical posts are removed - behind my back & without any justification!), I have withdrawn from this forum.

[sipelip]

Hi and thanks for the replies.
The drivetrain is in pretty good condition, so I will only need to clean it a bit, and perhaps change a few rubber parts and wiring. Before I started the dissassembly, I tried it out a bit in on my lawn, and it started and ran quite well - but I couldn't really try out the gearbox properly. I did however have some electrical fault causing the engine cut out quite often, but it might be the battery which is en poor condition, or the relay under the front seat - I havent investigated further, since I need to redo a lot of the wiring anyway.

So mainly it is at paint job, refitting missing parts and making it as historically correct as possible. It has some superficial rust in different places, so I am in the process of sandblasting the parts and getting an overview of what I need to fix/buy or restore. The only major problem I have had so far, has been the swingarm bolt, which is completely stuck. I have applied about 6 tonnes of pressure to it, and it hasn't moved! I tried heat, soaking it in rust loosener, pulling it with the nuts (the thread was stripped in the process), and using an extractor - all to no avail. I have taken it to my local mechanic who has a proper hydraulic press, and hope that he can get it out. The swingarm has som rust on it, so I would like to blast and repaint it.

I will check out Blurredman's website and miraculis.de - thanks for the tips