Vacuum Ball Damper Thingy Installed...
11-02-2004, 09:53 PM
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Vacuum Ball Damper Thingy Installed...
Dr.D you'll be pleased to hear about this though the circumstances are a bit screwed... I was coming out of work today and as fate would have it, parked in the same spot as I was the last time, my car pulled it's monthly "refuse to start, flood, and **** me off" move. So after serveral worthless turns of the key with the starter affecting no actual, er, starting, and the stink of $2.25 gas in the air I decided to do some parking lot surgery.
About an hour or so later, one nicely ruined dress shirt from unhood dirt, and some requisit cursing, I had taken the time to replace my vacuum ball damper thing. Hopped in the car, and perhaps this is coincidence, the car decided to sputter and then turn over.
So long story longer... What's that damn thing do anyways? The "damper" that is, aka vacuum ball. The car runs 90% of the time without it hooked up, and this one looks like a Jiffy Popper with the foil. And why's it called a "damper"? And is it supposed to have a stiff plastic vacuum hose running under the IM but connected to the joints with flexible hose?
Later this week... Coolant tank replacement.
About an hour or so later, one nicely ruined dress shirt from unhood dirt, and some requisit cursing, I had taken the time to replace my vacuum ball damper thing. Hopped in the car, and perhaps this is coincidence, the car decided to sputter and then turn over.
So long story longer... What's that damn thing do anyways? The "damper" that is, aka vacuum ball. The car runs 90% of the time without it hooked up, and this one looks like a Jiffy Popper with the foil. And why's it called a "damper"? And is it supposed to have a stiff plastic vacuum hose running under the IM but connected to the joints with flexible hose?
Later this week... Coolant tank replacement.
11-02-2004, 11:02 PM
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It's a vacuum resevoir.
It maintains vacuum and it is connected via a hard plastic line that runs under the intake manifold to a soft rubber line that is connected to T-fittings at the intake switch-over solenoid end.
11-02-2004, 11:10 PM
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The ball's nipple tends to crack or break off
If your car didn't start, it was maybe due to a massive vacuum leak in the hose/tube, or ball reservoir. The reservoir is best relocated to a more convenient location.
11-03-2004, 11:51 AM
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Yeah the nipple is what broke off before.
Which is why I had to replace it. I noticed whoever messed with it before decided to cap the hose and just leave it sitting unattached to the ball. Damn nimrods.
11-04-2004, 06:34 AM
#6
It's for when the engine isn't producing enough vacuum to keep the vacuum system pressurized...
Like at high RPM.
Don't know if it would affect starting, though.
As for the vacuum hose arrangement, you got it correct. There is a hard line that runs under the IM and it is attached to the vacuum ball via a short piece of vacuum tube. I relocated my vacuum ball behind the secondary firewall (next to the ECU).
Don't know if it would affect starting, though.
As for the vacuum hose arrangement, you got it correct. There is a hard line that runs under the IM and it is attached to the vacuum ball via a short piece of vacuum tube. I relocated my vacuum ball behind the secondary firewall (next to the ECU).
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