I was replacing the thermostat on my trans am and I ended up breaking one of the vacuum line connections on one of the sensors (Its the blue connector in the pictures, you can see where I broke it if you look carefully). And now the car is idling poorly. I'm wondering what these sensors control and if I can just remove them (I don't have to pass emissions).
The blue sensor is just connected to the carb and to this large diaphragm thing, that is located on the rear passenger side of the intake manifold (see pictures), could I just plug the vacuum lines and call it a day? Also what does that diaphragm control?
I would like to just put a nice simple thermostat housing on there without all this spaghetti coming out of it, but at the same time I don't want to throw everything out of whack.

The car is an 84 trans am 305 H.O. if thats any help.
Thanks guys.

 

No - your car will run poorly as long as that is broken - you now have a vacuum leak, and thus your air/fuel ratio is too much air.

That vacuum line runs to your EGR - no EGR means very poorly running motor. Now, you can remove the EGR all together, but that requires a block off plate. Then you'd have to replace that "sensor" with a plug, and cap off that vacuum line. But removal of the EGR system will throw a code and SES light.

It would be cheaper easier better in the end to just replace the broken part.

 

Well if thats the case I'll just get a replacement part for it.

But why would the EGR be connected to the thermostat housing? I thought it only dumped exhaust gases back into the intake to be burned when vacuum reaches a certain level, it doesn't really make sense that its connected to the thermostat housing, unless I'm missing something (which I vary well could be).

 

Sorry, it's been a while, but it seems to me that that piece also controls the early fuel evap (EFE) valve, located between the pass side exhaust manifold and Y-pipe. At this stage in your car's life, I'd be surprised if either the EGR and/or EFE valve functioned as designed. The switch is also a thermal vac switch (TVS):

Manual: To regulate EGR flow, an ECM controlled normally open solenoid is used in the vac line. The ECM uses info from the following sensors to regulate the solenoid: Coolant Temp (in the water neck), etc, etc.

JamesC

 

So I tried doing some half assed fix today before it started to rain, just to see what would happen. I took a screw and threaded it through the broken part of the connection and to my surprise it worked perfectly. The car idles fine and it didn't even send an idiot light code to the dash (probably because I was just idling in the driveway).

I don't plan on leaving the car like this, but I want to know what would go into deleting the EGR and EFE and what the potential consequences would be.

I can't imagine that removing the EGR would have to large consequences, it might run a bit hotter and maybe some pinging. What else could it cause? Also how would I go about getting this block off plate? I've never heard of anyone buying one so would I have to fabricate one myself?

My end goal for this car is to remove the 305 and replace it with a 350. So I figure I might as well tinker around and learn a bit more on the 305.