Tractorsport Flowbench Forum Archive

Posted: **Wed Apr 06, 2005 11:59 am**

Thought of another question, ..

a manifold for switching the manometers between flow directions, ..
has anyone advice on where to find one?

Thanks,

Curtis

Posted: **Wed Apr 06, 2005 12:22 pm**

Try an aquirium shop. They have manifolds for distributing air, usually they have one inlet, and 2 or 4 valved outlets

Posted: **Thu Apr 07, 2005 10:46 am**

I bought some brass 3 way valves from Orchard Hardware that worked well. I tested them for leaks and all 4 were air tight. $15.00 each. They can be panel mounted and have a lever/pointer handle. I was able to reverse all vac connections with 4 valves and a lot of plumbing. I should connect all the levers to one linkage.

It just makes me nervous to have 4 more things that can go wrong. I prefer to reconnect the tubing directly.

John

Posted: **Thu Apr 07, 2005 3:28 pm**

My vote would be reversing the tube connections, simple and pretty much fail safe. No need to make it more difficult than it needs to be.

On my bench I always flow in the same direction and draw my air out of the exhaust and into the flowbench with a hose connection. That works for the parts I test but might not work for what others test.

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 7:51 pm**

Here's a simple design of a switch to reverse both manometers with one switch.

Posted: **Mon Apr 18, 2005 6:52 am**

Another way might be to scrounge a whole lot of those small 12V solenoid valves they use for various things in auto emission control plumbing.

Usually they are just on/off, but using Larry's diagram as a guide, you could use a bunch of them to do the job. Then just hook up a single electrical switch for suck/blow manometer reversal.