I just bought a 78 sachs columbia commuter and now it's all stripped down and ready to be rebuilt. I have a few questions: Where can I get a service and owner's manual for this bike? I know they make performance parts for tomos and puch, but do they make parts for sachs too? I want to rebuild the engine, what parts will I need?
For Origenal parts I would Try www.mopedwarehouse.com They do a lot of factory buyouts.. good on prices. Doug D
Hi Ryan,
I just rebuilt my Sachs too. Another source for parts in Handy Bikes in Ohio. Do a google search for "Handy Bikes". Their webpage is slim, but they have a great selection of Sachs parts at great prices. They used to be the US distributor for Sachs.
You might open up the engine/trans before ordering parts.. my rings were fine, so all I really needed were gaskets (order a complete gasket set for $14) and an plastic oil-plug. I also had to get the plastic side-panels for the bike, a few switches, tires/tubes, etc.
Good luck w/ it. Mike bartell (mbartell) posts alot on this forum, and he's just redone his Sachs too. He was a big help to me when I was doing mine.
-Mike
The sachs motor is a good one, it has a lot of low-end power, and is very reliable if you don't mess with it too much. There is a place in Italy that has a new cylinder and head for them, but I havn't tried it. do a search on the forum, I posted the link a week ago, and anyway it was just in the links section on this site.
When you get parts from handy bikes, send in your old part- it's a lot easier to match things up. Sachs has a lot of parts that also work for Puch. They had everything I needed. If you get one of the "old ladys" on the phone, just be patient, and try to make them laugh, it makes a lot of diference.
Handy bikes was able to send me a piston that had a little higher deck for more compression, it's lighter, and the skirt will be trimmed to match the old one. If I can det a digital camera, I'll try to take and post some pictures.
I'm getting a spare motor soon, and will be trying to get performance out of it, maby see if there is parts from annother engine that may be close enough to bolt on w/ little modification.
I just found out something- silicone isn't too good to put the block halves together, because gas will eat it. It's better to use anarobic sealer. It works well with aluminum, dosn't react with gas, and it only takes a little to seal ANY leaak in the case. It's not a problem if you don't have any leaks, and I'm not going to rip all my stuff apart to do it, but I'll keep it in mind for the next one.
I'll try to post a part number and description soon.
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