[sweatmachine]

I've used the home-made manometer with great success, but when I moved a couple months ago it got tossed.

So I was thinking about buying one of those gin-u-wine carb tuners like Newbonneville sells, and probably the cheaper one.

anyone use that with success? The manometer worked well enough, but it's a pain to store it...20' of fuel line and a big piece of cardboard... The manometer also is very jumpy and a PITA if the carbs are waaay out of sync as it sucks all the fluid out in no time flat...

 

[Geoff]

I think I'd go for the mercury one, after trying pretty much all of em, including the $100 electronic one. Its new fangled, but does not do the job any faster or more accurate than a well made mercury balancer
G

 

[WS]

I purchased the "Carb Tune II" in 2004. Still have it and it works great.
The system is very stable and problem free.

 

[black-bonnie]

sweatmachine,

A few months ago you used your homemade gizmo on my bike. Not long after that I bought the mercury tuner from New Bonneville. The mercury tuner worked a TON better than the homemade.

If you want to try mine to see how you like it first, let me know and I'll run it over.

 

[ohiorider]

A buddy of mine purchased the electronic unit. Before it was used, he needed to wire a component, perhaps a diode or resistor, into the circuitry, because the gauge bounced around too much for an accurate reading. The mfg may have cured this problem by now ... this was 2-3 years ago. I haven't' used anything but the home made unit, and it seems to work ok for me on the T100, W650, and R100GS, all carburated twins. However, ignorance is bliss, so they say, so I might really like a set of mercury sticks.

Bob

 

[tcb]

I've used nothing but the cheapeast mercury carb sticks for thirty years- they work great! :wink:

 

[sweatmachine]

well the carbs are balanced yet again!

I used the manometer (home made tubing) again, because:

1. I'm cheap and it's Christmas time
2. I'm buying mikuni 41mm carbs and they don't need balancing like the stock carbs do, so a $$$ carb tuner would be a waste of money

The mikunis sold by Bonneville Performance use a different throttle mechanism than the stock carbs do, and instead of being linked by a cable they are linked by a shaft that's bolted in 4 places, according to Bill Gately "it is very hard to get them out of sync" which is just another plus for buying them.

So I made the manometer again and it worked well again...except I accidentaly melted one of the ends of tubing on my header pipe...came off easy though.

FYI, if anyone wants to make a manometer, buy the hose at Home Depot or Lowe's in the Plumbing dept instead of buying fuel line at the auto parts store.

Most auto parts stores sell fuel line by the foot, and it's usually $0.50-$1.50 a foot, and you need at least 20' to do it right, I bought 20' of hose at Home Depot for $3.00 in the plumbing dept.

worked great!!!

 

[ohiorider]

Sweat - Glad to hear your #2 home made unit worked for you. Mine always has. I may not have been the first person to post the note from the BMW Forum about the home made unit to this forum, but I did post it, and always felt badly when someone built the unit and didn't like it. Ain't nothing but vacuum ..... if our carbs are anywhere close to in balance, the manometer made from fish aquarium tubing and Stabil works fine. And if not, well, there's a bit of smoke in the garage as the Stabil goes through the engine. Ahhhh, a smell only a motorhead could love!

Happy Holidays to All,

Bob

 

[sweatmachine]

haha, yeah I think the neighbors thought I'd screwed the pooch when the smoke started billowing out of the pipes. I did the sync in the carport.

I dig the manometer, in all it's home-made glory and simplicity. Plus you get the satisfaction of having made something, having performed the maintanance, and having saved money too!

 

[SCCTrim]

Bill is correct, the HSR's are very hard to get out of sync. I had mine off the bike and 1 totally dismantled, when back together I had the guy's at the shop check it while I was there...I was pretty close.