Gotta Love '80s Vacuum Lines

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 10:17 am

A friend of mine just bought an '85 Chevy S10 & it was running rough & dying & leaking oil &.... well you get the idea. Well, I said that I'd change the wires & plugs & redo the valve cover gaskets. What was I thinking? About 5 hours later, I finally finished. There must have been 30 vacuum lines covering the entire thing & all needed to be disconnected to do the valve covers. What's worse, most were about ready to disintegrate on contact. Of course, it didn't run any better after the plugs & wires. Now, I'll likely spend another day running new vacuum lines... If there's anything I don't miss from the '80s, it's vacuum lines.

Err · Post by **Err** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 12:22 pm

I had an 86 2.3L Mustang like that. I ended up replacing pretty much all the vacuum lines ~94. They were the hard plastic lines that, like the ones on the Chevy you're working on, disintegrate on touch. I don't know what they were thinking when they decided on that material.

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 12:43 pm

My '87 Jeep Wrangler was the same way. I ended up stripping every bit of it out & slapping on a Holley carb. Never a problem since (and looked nicer). I have since updated it to multi-port injection. Honestly, I got more power out of the Holley, but St. Louis emissions said that wasn't gonna cut it.

renovation · Post by **renovation** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 6:52 pm

i remember when we had emissions testing for a couple of years around here.
it was a joke if you held the tail pipe wond away from the car you could pass anything even if it smoking so bad you couldn't see the back of the car or around it.
nice to not have to get the tested any more even if it was only $10 .
I remember one time we stuck the tail pipe wond in the pipe of one car while we ran the testing unit on a diffrent car to make it pass !

nexus_7 · Post by **nexus_7** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 8:02 pm

renovation wrote:i remember when we had emissions testing for a couple of years around here.
it was a joke if you held the tail pipe wond away from the car you could pass anything even if it smoking so bad you couldn't see the back of the car or around it.
nice to not have to get the tested any more even if it was only $10 .
I remember one time we stuck the tail pipe wond in the pipe of one car while we ran the testing unit on a diffrent car to make it pass !

thats because you live in MI...anything to keep an American car on the road. lol well ,back in the day, I would be happy to drive many of them around now.

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 9:28 pm

I'm sure the vacuum stuff started earlier as I had a 71 El Camino and it had vacuum lines.

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 10:24 pm

They started earlier, but peaked in the mid 80's. I counted at least 20 lines & wasn't trying to find them all. It literally looks like spagetti.

Here's the diagram:

Err · Post by **Err** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 12:24 am

I found this online. This is the typical 80's ford setup. The pink, green, and yellow lines are what normalicy and I are talking about. They were made of plastic and after a decade or so of being that close to the engine, disintegrate when you attempt to do anything that involves moving them. You can't see it from the pic but some run clear to the other side of the engine compartment.

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 1:10 am

Yup, similar to that, but actually messier. Someone tore into the engine before & the neatness that the factory originally had was lost. Also, many of the rubber ones were disintegrating as well.

Pugsley · Post by **Pugsley** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 4:08 pm

Go GO EPA. I had a 85 wagon... most of my stuff was "missing". Had the right lines to keep fuel economy and pass emissions.