Mercury Stick

[BowlingSS]

I have a mercury stick that I have had since the 70's. Does anyone know where and how much mercury I would need to fill it up? Almost all the mercury is gone. The last four cylinder I tuned I gave it too much gas and it all sucked up into the cylinder.
Thanks.
Bill

 

[grizld1]

Ouch! When a motor sucks mercury in, it blows it out for you to breathe. Another hazard is that the lucite tubes are brittle and snap with little provocation, and then you have a toxic spill to clean up. The last manometer I made uses two 3 ft. columns of 1/4" ID rigid clear tubing and colored water. The large diameter tubing enables use of the lighter medium, and breaks and bubbles in water purge fast, unlike oil or ATF. Tall tubes and long lines keep the motor from sucking the medium out. I'd bet you could make one of these for less than the tab for a top up of quicksilver. But I understand the sentimental value that attaches to a long held tool; I bought my few remaining Indestro combination wrenches and sockets in 1965, and every use brings memories.

Sorry for the digression. Motion Pro is the first outfit I'd try for mercury stick top ups.

 

[BowlingSS]

I just Remembered I do have a new Motion Pro carb synchronizer that has never been out of the box.

 

[grizld1]

Didn't know Motion Pro made mercury free sticks. That's great news.

 

[BowlingSS]

Didn't know Motion Pro made mercury free sticks. That's great news.

I have had this one a few years. It works pretty good. My carbs were off.

 

[5twins]

Yes, they sell refill "juice" for this new one but specifically say it can't be used on the old mercury sticks. They don't sell mercury for them.

I'm not sure how you got your mercury sticks to suck the mercury into the engine. I have a set and revving the motor makes the levels in the sticks go down not up. Over the years I have hooked them up to some pretty badly out of sync carb sets but the mercury never got close to being sucked into the motor. I know this can happen on the homemade sticks quite easily. Usually they're just a big loop of plastic tubing with oil in the bottom bend. Badly out of sync carbs will pull it up one side and into the engine.

I've considered building one of these but I thought I'd have the tubes going into a jar about half full of oil. I was hoping that pulling from a large reservoir of oil like this would help lessen the tendency to have one side suck fluid into the engine. It may also help dampen the bouncing levels in the tubes.

 

[member28833]

Almost all the mercury is gone.

Yes, I'm right there with you. What happened to the refill? Ex Wife.. hope she didn't dose my dinner.
These Mercury sticks worked very well so I use to have very good carb sync on my FJ1200. That was a very fun engine to maintain and tune.
XS650's ? I just sync with the carbs held up to a light (sunshine) and call it good enough..

 

[cra-z1]

The new unit with that blue liquid from Motion Pro work ok for a short period of time then become a PIA. I have also used the ones with the stainless steel rods which get gummed up. I had a set of mercury gages I built in the 70's but decided that I would give them up due to environment concerns. After being frustrated with the choices I built another set. Since I was in the HVAC industry I had access to hundreds of old thermostats that were changed out over the years, didn't take long to get enough to build another set. But now you have a better choice. Take a look at these.https://thedigisync.com
I would be inclined to pick up a set of these before trying to get mercury.

Here are my gages I made. I take the top off the bottle and slide the tubes up, place the bottle under the tubes and slide them back down into the Mercury.

 

[Jim]

You guys are mad as hatters....

 

[arcticXS]

I had carb issues with the stock 38 mm flatslide CV Mikuni carbs on my Ducati, and borrowed an original Suzuki synch tool from a HD mechanic just down the street. I believe it was the type with balls inside a tapered glass tube. This sort of worked OK, but the bike never ran perfectly at just above idle. So I used some clear tubing and ATF, and found that they still needed adjustment. After that, all was fine.
My point here, is that Hg (mercury) has 16 times the density of ATF oil, resulting in less resolution. Some BMW injected boxer owners have also found that using ATF in clear hose gives the required precision to get the desired result. So that is what I stick to when synching carbs.

 

[cra-z1]

Bottom line is you'r still comparing heights of the column. Just got to line them up.

 

[Paul Sutton]

Mercury has its advantages e.g. it does not foam. Just don't spill Mercury on Aluminum and its alloys.