That looks good Miles, are those gauges hard to find? where did you get them?
Cheers
I bought them at Princess Auto, which is a Canadian-based retailer. $8.00 each. They were equipped with a 1/4" male thread on the inlet, so I also had to purchase 1/4" female x 1/4" hose barb adapters as well., which was the smallest hose size available. The tubing size used is
5/32" I.D., which provides a nice snug fit over the bike nipples. This is available in the windshield washer tubing section of auto stores. There is still enough stretch in this hose to get it over the 1/4" hose barbs, with a little effort and lubricant. I bought enough tubing to provide about 2 1/2" feet for each gauge.
However, I'm sure that if you searched the internet, you would find even less expensive gauges than this, perhaps some that are standard-equipped with hose barb inlets.
I've gathered from reading posts about other manometers is that
all types require restrictors in the tubing, to prevent or limit fluctuation of the needles/rods, or liquids being used. So it was with my setup. What worked for me were some items I had in the workshop - #10 x 32 tpi x 2" long brass machine screws (fully threaded). I just cut off the head, filed off the rough edge, and stuck one in each inlet end (bike) of each hose. This size of screw is perfect for the 5/32" hose . The air is restricted because it is forced to travel along the threads of the screw.
I bench-tested each gauge/hose for restriction, before installing it on the wood manifold, simply by orally stimulating (sucking),:worthy: on each hose, then releasing the vacuum and noting how long it took before the needle returned to the stop. With the restrictor screws in place, this time was 3 or 4 seconds. In actual use on the bike, there was no fluctuation of the needles at all.
Cheers, mate!
