Coupe GT vacuum hoses

[Chris Hall]

Hey kids

About 6 months ago, I was trying to track down a stalling problem
(which turned out to be electrical) and wound up causing 2 more
problems while searching for that first one.  The 2nd problem (the
first I created) was cracks in the solder points on the fuel pump
relay... finally poped the top off my spare and main that I had been
switching between, and noticed that the repeat plugging and unplugging
lead to the cracks, which would cause the car to stumble / run rough.

The third problem (the second I believe I had created) was with the
vacuum hoses that are on top of the valve cover.  The car would also
stumble, but in this case, would occasionally backfire, and could be
brought back to idle by flooring the gas pedal... One day while
shaking the vacuum hoses, I noticed it stumble.  I think I eventually
"solved" the problem by shoving that metal pipe that runs from the
bottom of the driver's side of the block up in to that 4 way (or
whatever) hose that attaches to the cam cover.  Drove the car for
about 6 months until last week when the engine started to cut out
again.  Decided to drive it again today, and about 20 minutes in to my
ride, the tach started slowly dropping and poping back up, the car
backfired, etc...  I know it's not an electrical problem because the
tach didn't drop like a stone as it does when the ignition control
module fails, etc.

So my real question is... Do you think this is happening because the
hoses are probably as old as the car (1985... yikes)?  I'm thinking
that the seal between all the hoses isn't what it once was...  Is
there anything you can cover the ends of all the hoses with to promote
a better seal?  The 4 way hose is kind of stiff, and doesn't exactly
"wrap" around the bumps on the end of that mnetal pipe... it just
sorta snaps in there.

I do remember hearing a slight leaking sound the last time I fixed
this, but it went away when I shoved that metal pipe as far in to that
multi connection hose as I could.  I didn't hear a leak today, but as
soon as I got the engine running again on the roadside today, I went
and shook the hoses, and the car stumbled and died right then.  Took
me about 15 minutes of this until I was able to get it running fine
again.  To make matters worse, I have a snapped hood release cable and
I have to shove a long socet wrench extension under the hood and hook
the remaining cable on the pass side, and push that metal "loop" on
the drivers side to pop the hood lol.
 

-- 
Chris Hall
badcomrade at gmail.com
"making girls cry since 1974"