Small victory

[dmac156]

I decided to start digging into my HVAC system tonight. I hooked up my mityvac inside the engine bay, and could not hold vacuum. I could hear something leaking each time I pumped. I traced it down to something under the cowl on the passenger side of the car. There is an accumulator or something under there, an empty plastic container, and the vacuum T connector that was connected to it was completely deteriorated, so all 3 lines were open. I put in a new T, pumped up the mityvac, and it held pressure. Progress.

I cranked up the car, which had only had defrost working and like a symphony things began to work. Vent, floor, recirculate, and defrost! I don't know how long it's been since the vents worked, but plenty of debris flew out. The AC compressor kicks in, but I'm not sure that it's blowing cold air, the ambient temp was low tonight so it's hard to tell. I might have some more work to do on the AC, but this was a major step in the right direction!

[8991XJ]

Common failure is that T at the vacuum storage bottle. Glad you found that part and are one step closer to a working HVAC.

[Freshbread]

Yeah good time to paint the cowl too since it seems like every e23 I've seen, even here in the Southwest US, has surface rust. I had mud wasp nests, leaves, etc under that bad boy.
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[Hit Man X]

Install a brass T there, that factory plastic one is a piece of shit. I received sub five years of service life from the last one.

[dmac156]

Yeah, there was lots of debris in mine. I cleaned it out, will probably paint the cowl.

Where would I find a brass t connector that small? Would my local auto parts store have them? That area must get hot, being on the side of the car with the exhaust manifold, that's probably why they deteriorate so quickly.

[Hit Man X]

I bought a ten pack of the brass 1/8" T fittings. Probably from Amazon or ebay. That cowl is one area, another is over by the auxiliary vacuum pump the ACC cars have near the master cylinder. They also work well for turbo cars with rising rate fuel pressure regulators to splice into the factory fuel pressure regulator signal.