R – sIFR + (other method using image doens’t work either)

I tried many times and searched this board, but I can't do a simple thing like this:

http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs139&d=09201&f=menu676.gif

I want to render a menu like this:

item 1 | item 2 | item 3 | …. etc…

"item 1" AND pipe character "|" = sIFR rendered text

HTML:

<div id="menu"> item 1 <span class="pipe"> | </span> item 2 <span class="pipe"> | </span> </div>

This part is within my HTML at the very bottom:

<script type="text/javascript">

var metaroman2 = 

{ src: 'shared/sifr/metaroman2.swf' , ratios:[....7, 1.32....] }; 
sIFR.activate(metaroman2);

sIFR.replace(metaroman2, {

selector: '#menu', css: ['.sIFR-root { background-color: #F9F9F9; color: #1F2956; font-weight:bold;}'], wmode: "transparent" }); 
sIFR.replace(metaroman2, {

selector: '.pipe', css: ['.sIFR-root { background-color: #F9F9F9; color: #1F2956;}'], wmode: "transparent" }); 
</script>

CSS:

.sIFR-active .pipe {

visibility : hidden; line-height : 1em; margin-left : 5px; margin-right : 5 px;
} 
.sIFR-active #menu {

visibility : hidden; line-height : 1em;
} 

The problem is, that the "|" character is beeing put right at the end of the word with no spacing between (5px).

How i want it:
item 1 [5px space] | [5px space] item 2

What i get:
item 1|item 2

OTHER METHOD:

If I try it with an image, the image doesnt get displayed at all. ("sIFR.fitExactly = true" has been set in sifr-config)

What I mean with "image": in stead of the pipe sign, an image which represents the pipe sign.

html:

<div id="menu"> item 1 <img src=...> item 2 <img src=...> </div>

css:

.sIFR-active #menu {

visibility : hidden; line-height : 1em;
} 

script:
This part is within my HTML at the very bottom:

<script type="text/javascript">

var metaroman2 = 

{ src: 'shared/sifr/metaroman2.swf' , ratios:[....7, 1.32....] }; 
sIFR.activate(metaroman2);

sIFR.replace(metaroman2, {

selector: '#menu', css: ['.sIFR-root { background-color: #F9F9F9; color: #1F2956; font-weight:bold;}'], wmode: "transparent" }); 

</script>

I'm sorry for the messy code, but I hope you can make some sense of it.

(edit: have been using sIFR for a few days, simple heading replacing with ratio's work perfectly but the above is beating me up)