Cruise control vacuum goes into this TEE fitting. The left branch goes to the plastic vacuum reserve canister below the left headlight. The right branch goes to another fitting beside the distributor.
Something wasn't right .. photos of the related vacuum lines
Cruise control vacuum goes into this TEE fitting. The left branch goes to the plastic vacuum reserve canister below the left headlight. The right branch goes to another fitting beside the distributor.
The line from the cruise control comes in to the bottom of this fitting; you can't see it in this photo.
The line connected to the elbow runs between the rear of the plenum and the front of the distributor, and is connected to the fuel pressure regulator (that's the problem!)
These 2 lines, are not connected properly!
The vacuum lines connected correcty!
Fuel pressure regulator connected to the line going to the front of the engine, and the line to the cruise control (and other stuff) is connected to the rear plenum vacuum port.
Here's a recap and an update.
After the repair the cruise control didn't work. I took it back, and asked the mechanic to
check his work.
He refused. He said he didn't work anywhere near the cruise control.
I went home and started trying to find out what was wrong. There was no vacuum to the
cruise control. I couldn't find anything wrong; all the hoses were connected.
A month later I was stranded over 100 miles from home with a catalytic converter failure.
What I finally figured out was, the mechanic had connected the vacuum hoses wrong; the
cruise control line was plugged in to the fuel pressure regulator and neither was connected
to a vacuum source. Therefore, the car was running with full un-regulated fuel pressure at
all times, resulting in a rich mixture.
I documented the cross-connected lines and went back to the dealer with my reciept for
the new cat. He acknowledged
that the mechanic messed up, but claimed that a rich condition would make it run
*cooler*; that he had only seen cat meltdown due to lean conditions. He offered to pay
half the cost of the new cat.
I told him half was better than nothing, but I was really looking for full reimbursement. He
told me to think about it over the weekend and call him on Monday. Well, before I went
back I did a quick search on the web for +"catalytic converter" +rich +melt.
After he read these 2 articles, he agreed to pay the full amount!
This is the same guy who completly disagreed with the written statement I had from a
local mechanic.
Extract from the referenced articles
Catalytic Converters, Larry Carley, Tire Review, December 1996
...
Converters are essentially afterburners that reburn carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons
with additional oxygen from an air pump or aspirator valve. Three-way converters also
break down oxides of nitrogen (NOX) into nitrogen and oxygen. All this produces a lot of
extra heat in the exhaust, which the converter can handle as long as there are "normal"
amounts of these pollutants in the exhaust. But when too much unburned fuel enters the
exhaust because of a misfiring spark plug, overly rich fuel mixture, a leaky exhaust valve or
head gasket, the converter's operating temperature can soar causing the converter's
innards to melt resulting in a partial or complete blockage.
...
...
An air/fuel mixture that is overly rich (too much fuel, not enough air), can destroy a
catalytic converter over time, as can any lead in the fuel. This can create extremely high
temperatures in the catalyst and can ultimately damage and destroy the honeycomb or
pellets inside the catalyst. In extreme cases, the outside shell of the catalyst actually
glows orange or red from the extreme heat inside, and the contents of the catalytic
converter can actually melt and clog the exhaust system creating an undriveable vehicle
...