Hello From Florida - new W2000 member

[FloridaMike]

Hello from Florida, glad to find this group!I'm just south of Daytona Beach (where it is currently bike week), and I have a 1975 or 1976 Hercules W2000. It has oil injection, so according to the material I have, it is a later model.When I got it, it was in a basket (several, actually) - everything apart, and unfortunately some serious rust in the tank, on the wheels, the brake disk, and so forth. The previous owner took it completely apart because it didn't run, and had planned to restore it (don't they all?) and he did have the frame and a number of other parts powder coated, fortunately gray (not candy apple purple).I traded three afternoons of my labor for the pile of parts - he had a 914 Porsche with a Corvette 5.7 liter V8 stuffed into it, and not one inch of working wiring. I wired his car, he gave me the bike ;-)Anyway, I bought a gasket set and some manuals from the guy in Ohio (who I understand just died this last weekend), and assembled the engine - there's nothing in it! It took about two hours and I kept looking around on the bench for more parts that I might have left out - but they were all there. Easy job. Then I added the transmission, installed the power train into the frame (using all new hardware, nylock nuts, stainless bolts, all the good stuff).Here's where I'm stuck - I have no idea of the preliminary settings for anything, and I am unsure of the routing and connections of the various vacuum hoses on the engine/carb/vacuum idle canister (so THAT'S what that thing is! - found out by reading this list.)I also don't know how to test the canister (now that I know what it is), how to pre-set, prime and check the oil pump, the initial settings on the carburetor, cable free-play, etc. I do have the timing set correctly and the points gap at .015". (Also what is the recommended spark plug?) What oil goes into the transmission and how much? I do have a couple of liters of Shell Rotella oil for the autolube, turns out it is easily available here because ALL the boat guys use it.So - I'm now ready to start the engine. I also would like to know how to keep it from rusting internally if I don't start using the bike for a few months after the initial startup (or should I just wait?) I still have a paperwork problem (no title, solvable) and will need different wheels, brakes, tank, seat, mufflers (the headpipe is good, and weighs a TON) - all the "dress up" stuff.And by the way, the reason it wouldn't run was that the main jet on the carb was blocked absolutely solid - no fuel. The carb fits a 70s vintage BMW, and the BMW dealer absolutely insisted that I needed TWO rebuild kits to do the job right - his expression when I told him the bike in question had only one carb was priceless. "You mean it isn't a BMW?" Nope.Best Regards,Mike ArmanSunny (but not real warm today) Florida

[kanonkopdrinker]

Hi Mike,To test the vacuum box (assuming you have it out of the engine?), push the piston in and put your finger over the nozzle where the hose would go.If the piston stays in, then the diaphragm is fine.If the piston springs back out again, your diaphragm is holed and the thing is scrap.Happily though, you don't actually need it and a blanking bolt can be put in its place.David

[FloridaMike]

Turns out the Hercules I'm working on does have a Florida title, and is listed as a 1977 model. In the "old days" motorcycles were often titled the year they were sold, not necessarily the year of manufacture. This is an oil-injection model which means it is a 75 or 76 (am I correct?) so it seems to have languished in a dealership for a while until it finally got sold.The odometer reads a whopping 1,444 miles! Unfortunately, the bike was somewhat (rather) deteriorated when I got it, and looked more like 144,444 miles . . . and was all apart.I expect to have the title problem resolved soon (Florida's definition of "soon" is a lot longer than mine) and will continue to build the bike. The discovery of the existence of a Florida title is a great help to me because we don't have a national database of serial numbers for vehicles which are NOT stolen! Now I don't have to ask 50 different state MVBs "Hey is this yours?" and they won't be able to find it in their records because it has a non-standard VIN anyway. Florida's computer refused to recognize it ("Invalid VIN"), I had to write some letters.Patience pays . . .Best Regards,FloridaMike

[kanonkopdrinker]

"This is an oil-injection model which means it is a 75 or 76 (am I correct?) so it seems to have languished in a dealership for a while until it finally got sold."[/i]According to a letter from Hercules Werke GmbH, all W2000s were constructed in a 13 month period between October 1974 and November 1975 ... but only had their builder's plate attached once they left the warehouse; so it is not uncommon to see some W2000s with plate dates as late as 1979!DC