Fixed: inoperative heater control I had hooked up the vacuum line to the interior of the car the other night in the hopes of getting the heater control working again. The thing was still stuck on defrost, however.

So tonight I got my vacuum pump out and put some vacuum on that line manually. At first, it looked like it wasn't holding vacuum, and I thought I was in for some leak detection. But fortunately, I pumped some more before giving up, and whaddya know, it started holding vacuum quite well! I went inside the car, and was able to operate the blend doors using the dashboard control just fine, as long as I kept the vacuum pumped up.

So I teed into the vacuum line from the brake booster and started the engine up. No vacuum whatsoever coming from that line. Hmm. Pulled the hose off the booster and heard a sucking sound. Then I removed the check valve and tried to suck on it with my mouth in the direction it was hooked up.

It was installed backward, of course.

That wasn't my doing. The previous owner had done a lot of work to the car according to what he told me in an email, and obviously he had tinkered with this check valve and reinstalled it incorrectly.

So, yet another little item fixed!

I also connected the vacuum gauge to the manifold and noted that it was a little bit low. Since my timing light is on the fritz, I haven't been able to set the timing properly. Tonight I loosened the distributor and futzed with it until the vacuum was at about 17" and holding fairly steady. I think it's probably timed pretty close to spec now.  ¶ Sunday, April 02, 2006