Carb balancers

[Davo]

Have the Morgan Carbtune. It works and doesn't spill mercury if you drop it on the floor. At work, the old mercury column sphygmomanometer has also gone the way of the dodo for the same reason and it's replacements, either mechanical or electrical are just as accurate, and probably more so.

 

[AndyW]

With following this method, I was also able to go down to 500 Revs with my Jota when it had the 3-1 Megaphone on it, which most Laverdista did not think was possible. Was a nice show on every meeting...  ("How low can you go?")

I never left it there as I felt it was not good for the main bearings and as the primary drive started slapping. I put it back to 900 or 1.000 at least.

Have often wondered how good this can be for an engine: at what level does the oil pump stop pumping. Possibly less critical in our clunkers though I know can easily be catastrophic on a machine with white metal bearings..  

 

[Simonr501]

Have often wondered how good this can be for an engine: at what level does the oil pump stop pumping. Possibly less critical in our clunkers though I know can easily be catastrophic on a machine with white metal bearings..

It is surprising at how tough some white metal bearings are.

One Boiler Feed Pump I investigated had white metal bearings that had the oil-slinger in the wrong position, so no oil at all for months !!!!!!!!
The bearing was shiny but otherwise in tolerance.

 

[Paul Marx]

With following this method, I was also able to go down to 500 Revs with my Jota when it had the 3-1 Megaphone on it, which most Laverdista did not think was possible. Was a nice show on every meeting...  ("How low can you go?")

I never left it there as I felt it was not good for the main bearings and as the primary drive started slapping. I put it back to 900 or 1.000 at least.

Not good for the big ends mostly.
The rollers are skidding around the crankpin.

Paul

 

[Dellortoman]

Back in the old days we used to use a mercury manometer to measure the pressure drop across Stat valves in hydronic systems (Stat valves are special calibrating valves - the pressure drop through the valve gives an indication of water flow). I was commissioning the mechanical services in the new accommodation building at Casey station, Antarctica in 1988, using the mercury manometer to balance the heating water systems.

One day the station maintenance plumber (not one of my building crew) asked if he could borrow the manometer to measure the flow in one of the potable water systems. To stop it freezing, potable water is kept in a tank inside a heated building that was unimaginatively called the tank house. There were heaps of pumps, heating systems, etc. For some reason he wanted to measure the flow of potable water through one of the heat exchangers.

Anyway, I asked him if he knew how to use the manometer to calibrate a Stat valve and he assured me that he did. So I lent him the manometer. Some time later I went to the tank house to see what he was up to. There was no sign of the plumber, but there was the manometer with water in the U-tube where there should have been mercury.

I tracked down the plumber and asked him WTF he'd done. He said he connected the manometer hoses to the pressure ports on each side of the valve. Then he opened up the little cocks on the pressure ports to measure the pressure difference across the mercury column. That pressure difference was so high it immediately sucked all the mercury out of the manometer and into the potable water system. For some stupid reason he'd closed the Stat valve so the pressure difference between the inlet and outlet had gone sky-high, way too much for the manometer.  We managed to recover about half of the mercury from low points in the pipework. The rest is presumably still in there somewhere.

So if you're ever at Casey Station in Antarctica, and you think the water has a strange metallic taste, don't worry, it's only the mercury in the pipes.

 

[chrisk]

So if you're ever at Casey Station in Antarctica, and you think the water has a strange metallic taste, don't worry, it's only the mercury in the pipes.

  I'd hate think what the water tastes like if uranus was in those pipes.