1981 Vaccume Cannister

[gambit]

Can anyone solve a mystery for me? My 1981 vette has a vaccume caniser under the drivers front fender with about 5 hoses running from it. they are all cut off about a foot from the cannister and lead nowhere. There is a diagram on the underside of the hood that I belive shows wher eall those hoses were supposed to go. I dont have any trouble out of the car so they must have fixed it some other way, my check engine light comes on often, and most of the codes seem to point to items on the carb etc. Why would somebody cut the hoses, and how is it working without them? any ideas? Id like to fix it correctly if it has been altered.

 

[bill81vette]

Did somebody change the headlites on your vette???that canister is to operate the headlites popping up and down when you turn your headlites on.unless your doors have been removed or done away with then you wouldn't need them.
I believe the diagram you are refering to is the emission hose routing.

 

[Peer81]

Did somebody change the headlights on your vette???that canister is to operate the headlights popping up and down when you turn your headlights on.unless your doors have been removed or done away with then you wouldn't need them.
I believe the diagram you are referring to is the emission hose routing.

Almost Bill, the canister you're mentioning is mounted in the middle before the radiator. This one is indeed on the drivers side behind the front fender. It's for collecting fuel vapor that comes out of the carb and to redirect it back to the fuel tank.

@Gambit, do you smell fuel when you open the hood on that side? If everything is connected to your carb then you should i think. I would just reconnect them and return your system as it should be original. The vehicle emission control information sticker on the inside of your hood shows the correct connections!

Groeten Peter.

 

[gambit]

Fuel huh......

Thats very intresting. Yes there is a canister up front for the lights, they work fine, and this one is under the brake booster / master cyl. There aer all sorts of vaccume tubes hooked up on the carb but none run to the canister. the canister has the tubes on it but they hav been cut off about a foot from it. Why would somebody do that? I kinda want to understand why they would before i change it back, so I dont have any more trouble than I bargan for haha. How can the car run wihtout that canister and what is the damage by not using it? Yes I do smell slight gas, but assumed that was just from the carb.

also, my air filter has two intakes, but nowhere for them to attach to. Generally there is a plastic port on a fenderwell or soemthing that it would attach to via a hose, but nothing like that on my car. There is a place on teh bottom for the heat hose that goes to the manifold, but mine has stock headers so doesnt have a place for that. any ideas?

thanks a million guys for the input.

 

[JohnZ]

Do you have the 1981 Assembly Manual? That will show you exactly where all the hoses go and what's missing from the induction system.