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Re: Vacuum Pump Not Working

To: Bricklin@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Vacuum Pump Not Working
From: "John T. Blair" <jblair@exis.net>
Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2000 19:35:13 -0500
At 10:42 AM 1/1/00 PST, Riley Marquis III  wrote:
>
>My vacuum pump has never worked.  I tried plugging it in with the engine on 
>and nothing connected to the output port.  I did not hear anything coming 
>from the pump either.

Funny you should mention that Riley.  Jim Kelliher was over about 2 yrs ago
and his had died on him.  Since my car wasn't going to need one for a while,
I gave him the one from 887.  Well, today he came over to check on a couple
of items and to let me check where and how a few things go on my car.  When
he got here, his door wouldn't open but 1/2 way.  He checked his (mine
actually) vacuum compressor and it wasn't putting out.  So, I reach up on
the shelf and pull down another one and go put it on his car.  So now he
has had both of mine.  But at least we think he's back in business.

>I took off the plastic piece at the bottom and found a sping loaded 
>mechanism that can be placed in one of two different positions.  Is this 
>some sort of vacuum operated switch?  I moved the thing to the other 
>position before putting the pump back together, but haven't tried it yet.

After installing my other compressor, we took my old (dead) one and field
stripped it - completely.  Under the cover you talk about is indead a
plastic piece with a lever arm attached.  That is part of the actual
compressor.  It is a valve to port the air into the actual compressor part
of the pump.  We found that there is a rubber and a foam rubber O ring on 
the piston.  The foam seal was completely gone, and the rubber seal had
numerios cracks in it.  I'm pretty sure that that is the pump quit.  The
other possibility is that the main diaphram on your pump has gone.

We spent about 1 hr. disecting the pump to figure you how it works and what
all the pieces do.  There is a check valve under the output port that can
leak also.

>Also, My car has the vacuum reservior integrated into the front bumper.  
>Does it also control the vacuum necessary to run the power assist for the 
>brakes, or any other vacuum related functions, or just the headlamp 
>operation? 

No, it shouldn't work anything but the headlights.  There used to be a 
metal can, very similar to a 5# coffee can on the front cross brace of the
chassis which was the vacuum resivor.  But they had a lot of problems so
someone came up with the idea of using the front bumper.

>I have two other vacuum parts under the hood, one on each side of the car.
>I think these are the ones similar to the ones used on corvettes.  what are 
>they and what function do they serve?  How can I test them?

These are the actual headlight actuator vacuum motors.  And yes that are
similar to those on a vet, but I've been told on numerious occassions that
they are NOT the same.  The B.s were specifically made and the control rod
has to have more angular movement that the vets do.

As to testing them, do your headlights go up and down?  If so, then they
are working.

John


John T. Blair  WA4OHZ          email:  jblair@exis.net
Va. Beach, Va                  Phone:  (757) 495-8229

              48 TR1800    65 Morgan 4/4 Series V (B1109)
71 Saab Sonett III (71500840)    75 Bricklin SV1 (0887)    77 Spitfire

Morgan: www.team.net/www/morgan 
Bricklin: www.bricklin.org



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