Treasure or trash?

-
j par

j par

Well-hung Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2014
Messages
33,169
Reaction score
20,815
Location
Portland Oregon
A guy locally just advertise Mopar Parts last night and I was basically the first one on the scene this morning. I told him I'm just looking for treasures and probably not as buyer for Motors and Transmissions. he was fine with me coming over and looking through the boxes with his adult son in supervision.
first off on the left a pair of big block valve covers still sealed in the package old but I may need them for the little project that I'm doing. The adapter from an 8-track to a cassette I thought was pretty cool and something I hadn't seen before myself. I got an old 8-track that's brand-new looking from the neighbor.
put the real treasure here I feel is this multi vacuum gauge what I believe it is at any rate? I thought maybe this is something that I could to my dual carburetors with? I just got home and that bottom part looks to be partially full of Mercury? Nothing I want to mess with but nothing I'm afraid of is I don't think as long as I don't eat it I'll be fine? does anybody know what that Gage is all about? It looks like it has all the adapters and things.. Thank you..
IMG_20190212_121423.jpg
IMG_20190212_121519.jpg
 
What JBurch said. It'll work fine on your dual carbs. I've got a similar one given to me by an old mechanic that was great for tuning triple Webers on a customer's BMW 6-cylinder
 
It's called a manometer and yes it is for synchronizing multiple carbs especially on motorcycles.
 
j par said:
So I assume it's not going to suck the Mercury out of there into my carburetor?
Click to expand...
Nope. It’s a mercury manometer and the heavy dense mercury simply rises in the tubes to show how much vacuum is being pulled.
 
Also, if the tubes don’t have the same level on each side when it’s not hooked up, it may have lost some mercury you may need to add some. You can buy it on Amazon in small quantities.

Just don’t spill any or get it on your skin. The biggest danger with mercury are the vapors and if you spill any, you breathe it and get exposed. Once inside the manometer, there is little risk.
 
Ddaddy said:
Nope. It’s a mercury manometer and the heavy dense mercury simply rises in the tubes to show how much vacuum is being pulled.
Click to expand...
I reckon the dual quads don't pull a whole crap-ton of vacuum I was just thinking if it pulled a lot of vacuum it seems it could have just pull it right up and out?
 
Ddaddy said:
Also, if the tubes don’t have the same level on each side when it’s not hooked up, it may have lost some mercury you may need to add some. You can buy it on Amazon in small quantities.

Just don’t spill any or get it on your skin. The biggest danger with mercury are the vapors and if you spill any, you breathe it and get exposed. Once inside the manometer, there is little risk.
Click to expand...
It seems there's a bunch in there and it doesn't seem to be in one particular side or something it just seems to be a pretty good puddle of it floating around in the bottom area..
 
j par said:
I reckon the dual quads don't pull a whole crap-ton of vacuum I was just thinking if it pulled a lot of vacuum it seems it could have just pull it right up and out?
Click to expand...
Not possible unless you pulled a complete vacuum and probably not even then. There is a reason those tubes are narrow and tall for the amount of mercury in them. They are designed so that even under maximum vacuum, the weight of the mercury is still more than the relative pressure pushing on it.
 
j par said:
It seems there's a bunch in there and it doesn't seem to be in one particular side or something it just seems to be a pretty good puddle of it floating around in the bottom area..
Click to expand...
That’s good, it means it’s a reservoir type and is self leveling. It should work well.
 
j par said:
So I assume it's not going to suck the Mercury out of there into my carburetor?
Click to expand...

Ddaddy said:
Nope. It’s a mercury manometer and the heavy dense mercury simply rises in the tubes to show how much vacuum is being pulled.
Click to expand...


As someone that's worked on bikes for over twenty five years now, I would like to reassure the op that his motor most certainly can and will suck the mercury out of that balancer.

Free rev and drop the throttle and the vacuum spike will certainly do it, unless you've got the balancer hanging from your bumper. Even then it'll get close if you're really winding it out.

Generally speaking, though, it'll never come close if you're gentle. You'll get a feel for it pretty quick.

That said, it won't hurt a thing if the engine ingests any. Just make sure the balancer doesn't leak before you fill it. If it pulls mercury it'll pull it into the intake, not the carburetor, and what doesn't get turned into mercury vapor will just run past the rings and collect in the pan. I wouldn't use it on a motor with a fresh set of ported aluminum heads, though. Clean aluminum and mercury don't agree.

Old aluminum will be fine and I have never seen it attack older aluminum parts with an oxide layer.

Also great for the diy flow bench.
 
I almost forgot, If mechanical cam, adjust your valve lash before balancing carbs
 
jos51700 said:
I almost forgot, If mechanical cam, adjust your valve lash before balancing carbs
Click to expand...
I built a manometer to balance the dual carbs on the last 4 wheeler I had, its still hanging in my garage------cost all of about $10-$12.00.
 
famous bob said:
I built a manometer to balance the dual carbs on the last 4 wheeler I had, its still hanging in my garage------cost all of about $10-$12.00.
Click to expand...
Banshee?

What did you use to build it? I sprung for a four gauge setup...... and have never used it. I've only worked on Buell's since then
 
Ddaddy said:
Also, if the tubes don’t have the same level on each side when it’s not hooked up, it may have lost some mercury you may need to add some. You can buy it on Amazon in small quantities.

Just don’t spill any or get it on your skin. The biggest danger with mercury are the vapors and if you spill any, you breathe it and get exposed. Once inside the manometer, there is little risk.
Click to expand...
We used to let the thermometer mercury roll around in our hands! Ah, to be young and stupid again...well, young!
 
pishta said:
We used to let the thermometer mercury roll around in our hands! Ah, to be young and stupid again...well, young!
Click to expand...
My wife's mom used to give it to her to go outside and play with. You can imagine somewhere along the lines when she got her Environmental degree she was smacking her head LOL..
 
Ok , there's two things I want to know
1) how this can possibly work on a manifold with a common plenum under each carb,and
2) With a big old rumpidy-rump cam the mercury is gonna be jumping up and down, dancing like a cat on fire.
I have two of those still, from my motorcycle days, and I had to install dampers on the tubes, to be able to adjust the dance. I'm saving the mercury to build an anti-gravity propulsion system. I just need to figure out how to turn it red.
Oh yeah, let the rpm down easy, a high compression engine will easily swallow the mercury, even motorcycles do if yur not careful.

I remember in hi-school dropping that stuff into a saucepan and watching liquid metal explode into tiny little pin-pricks, some of which congealed back into puddles and some of which had to be coaxed back together. Very interesting stuff.
 
jos51700 said:
Banshee?

What did you use to build it? I sprung for a four gauge setup...... and have never used it. I've only worked on Buell's since then
Click to expand...

I used about (don't remember) 10-12ft of clear 5/16" plastic tubing, a 1 yard ruler, , make the center of the length of tubing go around the bottom under the yardstick, tapped it up both sides all the way to the top, not covering any numbers. Hung it from the ceiling in the garage, the still extra long tubes ran back down and attached to vacuum ports on each carb.. I used kerosene , colored with transfluid for the red color. Only fill the up tubes running up the yardstick about half full, the diff. in vacuum in the carbs will pull one side higher than the other if not adjusted to the same vacuum.
Worked very well, did not pick up any irregularities because it was hooked to the carbs.
Worked great on a 700cc 2cyl. 2 carb motorcyle engine . The engine has to be warmed up for this to work, will not be the same if u try it cold, after the engine warms up.
 
We used to bust open old thermostats and play with the mercury when I was a kid. We had quite a bit till we dropped it on the floor and it went everywhere. Maybe that explains a few things about me, like where my hair went.....
 
You have to be exposed to a lot of mercury (or lead), for a long time, before it'll hurt you. They used to use a lot of mercury in the manufacture of felt, used widely in the making of hats. This is how the "Mad Hatter" got that way.
 
j par said:
My wife's mom used to give it to her to go outside and play with. You can imagine somewhere along the lines when she got her Environmental degree she was smacking her head LOL..
Click to expand...

My grandfather used to work in the boilers area for Heinz in Stockton CA.
Over the course of a few decades some of those huge thermometers for the boilers got smashed into with a forklift or someone careless with a pipe wrench.
He ended up collecting almost a quart of it over the years, and we played with that crap whenever we visited.

A few years ago a local bike shop dropped one of those balancers and broke it on the shop floor.
Hazmat closed their shop for 4 days and charged them 6k for the clean up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top