i took the hose from the air pump off of the air check valve thats on the tube going into the manifold. without the tube, its pretty loud, with the tube its loud but not as loud. when i put my finger on the check valve theres a suction, if i give it some throttle it feels like air is pushing out a little. is the check valve bad?

 

The check valve should not allow air through without pressure from the injection pump. It sounds like the valve is failing.

 

ok its cheap to replace so i guess ill try it anyway. can any of u do me a favor and pull the hose and see if yours is loud too? and if you feel suction at it?

 

From what I've been able to determine, some early '80s Ford engines used a PulseAir system. That system used no air injection pump, but relied on exhaust pressure pulsation to draw air through the check valves and into the exhaust manifolds. They used a very light spring in the checks. "Normal" A.I.R. check valves may allow a bit of forward leakage in that mode, but if you are getting air flow back through the valve with the hose removed, the valve is bad. Any reverse leakage can carry moisture and exhaust gasses back through the system, destroying the air management valve and possibly the pump. That's exactly what the checks are supposed to prevent.

I'm not sure exactly wjat you mean by "pretty loud", but you should really only be able to faintly hear the valve diaphragm slapping closed if you hear anything at all. I pulled the left side hose on mine just to make sure, and could hear only a faint tapping from the valve seating. The noise from the pump was almost as loud.