Vacuum reservoir rattle

[Victor Kieffer]

Hello All:
Haven"t needed to post for a few years. I sold my '88 B II and bought a '99 Explorer Sport X VIN. Nothing special wrong with it that I couldn't figure out (brakes, wheel bearings, clutch and some rotten freeze plugs. Except for this. I bought the EXP with 153k on it and it had been in a front end joust. Right front QP and hood had fresh paint. I noticed driving it home that the air from the blower switched to the windshield on moderate acceleration. I figured it was a vacuum leak and made a mental note to look for it. Two days later I changed the plugs and they were a perfect light brown so I didn't worry about the mixture issues of the vacuum leak. No codes or check engine light. Six years later it finally went full Monty with hard start, 0171 and 0174 codes and airflow through the windshield vents only. Time to get serious. Got my hand vacuum pump out to start testing and found it needed a rebuild. Four days later and $8 worth of parts I was ready to go. I isolated a problem with the black vacuum line from the manifold behind the glove box that runs to the vacuum reservoir almost. Broken line. I then checked the reservoir which upon removal rattled curiously. It held vacuum bi bidirectionally with one or the other port blocked.. I then noticed that there was no check valve in the line from the intake manifold to the reservoir ball, but there was a double barbed splice fitting where I am used to seeing a check valve. The reservoir has no manufacturers markings on it. I am guessing that the rattle in the ball is an internal check valve that came off the inside of the tank and that my problem may be solved by installing a check valve in line as originally equipped. All hoses hold vacuum. Must be the check valve in the ball failed (aftermarket Chinese). I checked it in place (no Vacuum) then checked both lines and the ball separately (held vacuum) up to the splice where the line turned to red (normal location of the check valve). There was a splice in the black line going to the firewall/ HVAC manifold about 2 feet from the ball. By the way it took the removal of 2ea. 8 mm bolts to drop the fender liner and 2 ea. 10mm bolts to remove the ball from the inside of the liner located at the front right wheel well. I assume that the "new" ball was installed when the front end was repaired.

 

[CudaBrown]

Hello All:
Haven"t needed to post for a few years. I sold my '88 B II and bought a '99 Explorer Sport X VIN. Nothing special wrong with it that I couldn't figure out (brakes, wheel bearings, clutch and some rotten freeze plugs. Except for this. I bought the EXP with 153k on it and it had been in a front end joust. Right front QP and hood had fresh paint. I noticed driving it home that the air from the blower switched to the windshield on moderate acceleration. I figured it was a vacuum leak and made a mental note to look for it. Two days later I changed the plugs and they were a perfect light brown so I didn't worry about the mixture issues of the vacuum leak. No codes or check engine light. Six years later it finally went full Monty with hard start, 0171 and 0174 codes and airflow through the windshield vents only. Time to get serious. Got my hand vacuum pump out to start testing and found it needed a rebuild. Four days later and $8 worth of parts I was ready to go. I isolated a problem with the black vacuum line from the manifold behind the glove box that runs to the vacuum reservoir almost. Broken line. I then checked the reservoir which upon removal rattled curiously. It held vacuum bi bidirectionally with one or the other port blocked.. I then noticed that there was no check valve in the line from the intake manifold to the reservoir ball, but there was a double barbed splice fitting where I am used to seeing a check valve. The reservoir has no manufacturers markings on it. I am guessing that the rattle in the ball is an internal check valve that came off the inside of the tank and that my problem may be solved by installing a check valve in line as originally equipped. All hoses hold vacuum. Must be the check valve in the ball failed (aftermarket Chinese). I checked it in place (no Vacuum) then checked both lines and the ball separately (held vacuum) up to the splice where the line turned to red (normal location of the check valve). There was a splice in the black line going to the firewall/ HVAC manifold about 2 feet from the ball. By the way it took the removal of 2ea. 8 mm bolts to drop the fender liner and 2 ea. 10mm bolts to remove the ball from the inside of the liner located at the front right wheel well. I assume that the "new" ball was installed when the front end was repaired.

Did you ever fix the issue? Did you replace the reservoir? Because mine rattles as well and it doesn’t feel like it should.