Ok, i was working under the hood, inspecting all of the vacuum hoses and i found one that was broken. it goes down to this round ball like thingy under where the Cruise control module and Charcoal can are. You can only access it from under the car and it's right behind the bumber. What is this thing. Since i plan on redoing all of the vacuum lines on friday, i just plugged the line and am going to drive like that for the week. I just want to know what it is and what it does. Thanks

 

it's like a vacuum chamber. I think it's used for the hvac controls, but could be wrong.

 

it's weird, all it is, as far as i can see, all it is is a little ball with a vacuum tube. Weird.

 

Yeah..just a vacuum reservoir. Probably does function with the HVAC controls but who knows... Try to get that line replaced...might have to cut it down near the ball part and connect another wire to that piece and run it..just make sure it's a solid connection. Wish that damn orb would provide extra vacuum when the engine couldn't, so like, you know, you can still have functioning brakes after being on the gas. I've gone through a few stop signs for that reason.....

 

Crap I wish the search was still working cause I remember this topic coming up a few times. Theres an 84 z in the j/y with this on it. That canister looks freaky from a distance with the bumper off.

 

Yep, its a vacuum control. I laughed when I actually saw it because it was literally a ball. Actually, I am still laughing about it. It always seemed very mysterious to me hidden inside the fender out of sight.

If I wasn't at college right now, I would have taken a pic of it.

 

When I first discovered it, I had a friend go look at it and he was confused too..I was like 'well it has to have something to do with vacuum, seeing as there's a line into it..but there's only that one line and thats it? No sensors or anything?'

I believe I called it the 'orb of power' for a few days before I found out what it really was. Lol, I was thinking that might've been what gave my car the extra ***** it has. A friend of mine with an 86 2.8 Camaro with Flowmaster exhaust...he talked about always whooping up on V6 Camaros in the city...and me, **** stock with a K&N, ate him up..he was trying to figure out why. Hehe...'orb of power' at work.

 

HEHE lol, :hail: ORB OF POWER

 

Orb of Power, LOL. Some thirdgens have a box in place of it. I call it an air bank because it saves excess vacuum pressure.

 

now that I think about it, It does involve the HVAC controls. many moons ago when I first got my Bonnie, I was rebuilding the carb & had to disconnect a vacuum hose in the back to clear the carb for removal. WHen I put the carb back on, everything worked but the heater controls. it wouldn't switch. Iatarted to take the dash apart under the control & then remembered the vacuum hse. It went the the "orb of power". Everything worked after that.

 

The older GM cars used metal cans. Some were the size of a soup can, others like a large juice can. It was actually what GM used, food-stuff cans. Had the ribs and all. Painted black with a bracket soldered or crimped on. Funny looking things to see stuffed inside of fenders and such.

RBob.

 

I've only seen those on f*rds. I think the higher the engine compression, the bigger/more you had for vacuum reserves.