Gettin' Gaskety: Puch ZA50

So after splitting my ZA50 case I noticed that the thin paper gasket

between the case halves was slightly torn and worn, being almost

30 yrs old this is no surprise. A few months back I ordered a gasket

for the clutch cover to this engine off Ebay. I've never seen a

replacement gasket of this type sold for this engine. I decided to email

Bob from The Moped Garage in New Jersey (and the Ebay auction)

to see if he would be interested in working with me to recreate this

gasket. He uses high temperature grade teflon to construct his engine

gaskets. Bob was on board and below is a detailed description and

photos of my process. I'm putting my old design production skills to

some good use finally.

1. After lightly cleaning the engine case, I gently place it on my Epson

photo scanner, and scanned it into Adobe Photoshop. I used a scan

setting of 800 dpi at 100% scale. Luckily on my model of scanner the

lid completely comes off as to not put more pressure on the case and

scratching the glass of the scan bed. I quickly cleaned the glass after.

Here's how it came out. It's important that the case sit completely flat

on the glass. Also, for more accurate results Bob recommended that I

draw the gasket from the engine case and not from the old gasket.

This will assure a more accurate result.

2. I took measurements of all the bolt holes and circular openings

on the case with my Mutituyo digital micrometer. Accuracy to the

.0001" is very important.

3. I imported my scan of the engine case into Adobe Illustrator and

with my micrometer measurements I began to draw the gasket right

on top of the image.

4. I double checked the thickness of the gasket to make sure is was

supposed to be .0100" thickness. After measure several of the

uncompressed / unworn out areas, I got an average thickness of

.0100" as predicted. Some of the more worn areas measured .0065".

A gasket that is too thick will cause play in the crankshaft and could

destroy the engine.

5. I printed out the gasket vector file on card stock paper using

my Samsung B/W laser printer.

6. I cut out the printed paper gasket utilizing an Xacto knife and

a cutting mat. This part takes time, almost as long as it takes to

draw the gasket, and again accuracy is important in this stage.

7. I fit the paper gasket template to the engine case halves to

make sure every hole lines up correctly, that there is no buckling

or folding of the gasket, and too make sure the is no excess

overhang material inside the case. I got it pretty much on the first try.

If this had not fit so well, I would have had to make adjustments to

both the template and the digital file.

Here is the gasket template on the other engine case half.

Here is the gasket template when both case halves to mounted

together. All the holes are clear for bolts to be mounted.

I sent the digital file off the Bob. With any luck I'll have a new .0100"

teflon gasket for my ZA50. I have provided a link to the digital file of

my gasket on Moped Army in this forum thread. Hopefully soon Bob

will have these up for sale on Ebay.

I will use this same process to create more gaskets in the future,

next being either a Sachs 505-1a or the Laura M56.