Vacuum Canister

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Pittsburgh, PA
My Car
1973 Mach 1 Q code 4 speed
1973 Chevelle 454 SS
2005 Magnum RT
2008 Colorado
I'm taking my front end apart to be replaced and when I removed my vacuum canister I could hear the rust in it. Has anyone taken it apart and cleaned it out? Or do I need to get a new one? :huh:

 
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ok question.. there are 2 canasters on the passanger side one on the fire wall its filled with charcoal..that one they do not make any more and e-bay u might find one but good luck there is another one on the shock tower and i have an origional one for my car thats layin around some whrere or u can go to classicautoair.com and they have them for like 30-40 bucks i think

 
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ok question.. there are 2 canasters on the passanger side one on the fire wall its filled with charcoal..that one they do not make any more and e-bay u might find one but good luck there is another one on the shock tower and i have an origional one for my car thats layin around some whrere or u can go to classicautoair.com and they have them for like 30-40 bucks i think
This would be the one on the shock tower.

 
That´s not rust Mark!... The cannister is full with some little chips (dont know why or what for) and if yoku shake it, it sounds like very little stones inside... I think that is what the "purify" the emmisions or whatever... But it is just like this...

When i painted mine, i turned the cannister over and some of that little stones fell from the inside... My mechanic friend told me it is what the cannister supposed to have inside to actually work so dont worry about it!

 
There are two canisters that are on the 71-3 Mustangs, a vacuum canister for A/C equipped cars and a charcaol vapor canister that is on all cars.

The charcoal canister is mounted on the fender apron, below the P/S hood hinge, is painted blue and has one small hose connection and one larger tube connection. It is filled with activated charcoal. The purpose of this canister is to catch the fuel vapors from the gas tank and hold them until the next time the car is started. The small hose connection goes to the steel line on the firewall, which runs to the vapor separator on the tank. The large connection is attached to a paper/foil hose that is connected to the air filter housing. There is a plastic vent cap in the middle of the canister, which allows fresh air to enter when the engine starts, purging the vapors from the canister.

The other canister is attached to the rear of the P/S shock tower. This is the A/C vacuum reservoir, whose purpose is to hold a reserve of vacuum to keep the operation of the system constant. The A/C system is vacuum powered and if vacuum suddenly dropped, it would allow the vacuum motors to relax and change the settings of the system. There are two connections on this canister, a medium size that is connected to manifold vacuum, typically at a vacuum tree ont he firewall, and a much smaller nipple that has a hose that goes through the firewall to the A/C selector switch in the dash. There is another small hose of similar size coming through the firewall, this hooks to the flow control valve on the heater hose.

That being said, if your vacuum canister holds vacuum, then don't worry about the rust rattling around inside. Clean it up, repaint it and return it to service.

 
Hemikiller,

I already know what Tkfastbk is going to say so I will beat him to the punch. It sounds like your telling me this is for an A/C car or it may be that they moved it to the backside of the shocktower due to rusting :p. My controller inside is for non A/C but may have been changed.

DSCN1076.JPG

 
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Mark, the pic you posted shows the charcoal canister that goes on the fire wall. It has carbon in it and does not need to hold a vacuum.

The one that needs to hold a vacuum is the A/C canister. If you don't have A/C then you don't need this one.

 
O.K. I'm going to trace the line that was hooked up to it and see where it goes. I have a feeling it goes to the gas tank. At least that's the direction the line is headed. The 3 bolt holes on the shock tower I removed it from are tapped and I don't see any 3 hole patterns on the firewall for the bracket that holds it anywhere. So, Do I need to keep it or no? :s

DSCN1082.JPG

 
Hemikiller is dead on in his description and operation.Not a good idea to get rid of the carbon canister and system. "AX me how I know"!

Ok I'll bite how do you know:-/
I removed mine (carbin canister) trying to clean up my engine compartment,even went so far as to remove the vacume line running back to the top of the fuel tank. I was in the middle of the resto and did not re-install the engine until about a year later. I started having vapor lock fuel delivery problems.The car would vapor lock / run out of fuel while driving down the road. I had even been running a Holley Blue electric pump with the mechanical, no change. I found that by opening the gas cap before a pass down the track that the car would run OK. I figured that out by noticing that when I opened the cap that there was a vacum on the fuel tank.I finaly did some research and realized thet the fuel tanks on the 71-73 Mustangs are NOT vented like the early models. The carbon canister is the vent for the fuel system. It is a "polution control/ emision control" but does note affect the fuel / air charge quality at all. Maybe at first start up but that is it. Reinstalled all of my system and no more problems! Just trying to save someone else my hard learned lessons!

 
O.K. I'm going to trace the line that was hooked up to it and see where it goes. I have a feeling it goes to the gas tank. At least that's the direction the line is headed. The 3 bolt holes on the shock tower I removed it from are tapped and I don't see any 3 hole patterns on the firewall for the bracket that holds it anywhere. So, Do I need to keep it or no? :s
markmel,

I think some of the confusion lies in your mounting location. I will second Hemikillers explenation of the function and location of both canisters. He is spot on. What I think is being lost is that yours was moved to a different location over the life of your car. The canister you show in the previous picture is the emissions canister and it is mounted (by the factory) on the passanger side apron just below the hood hinge. Here are a couple of pictures showing the factory location.

Removed in this pic of a non-ac car. Center bottom of the picture shows the three hole mounting location on the apron (between shock tower & Firewall)

72 Mustang 088.jpg

Installed in an ac car

72 Mustang 044.jpg

 
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