WHERE on the early 80's model 4cyl GM products is the electric vacuum pump located???? I'll be making a trip over to the salvage yard over the next couple of weeks to look for one or 2 or 3 depending on price. BUT, i need to know WHERE to look on the car for it. [img]images/icons/cool.gif" border="0[/img]

Keith <A HREF="http://www.gmcmotorhome.com/tech/vacuum_pump" TARGET=_blank>www.gmcmotorhome.com/tech/vacuum_pump</A> <BR>is address of explanation and description of the vacuum pump installation.

Thanks Randy B. I've printed the info from the motorhome site on the vac pump. will go to the yard sometime over the next week or so to see what i can find.

Great link, Randy.<P>About a year or so ago (at the old chatroom), I had mentioned that the early Chevy Cavalier engines were so anemic that they the factory had to use an auxiliary vac pump to maintain sufficient vacuum for the power brakes, but I was unaware that so many other car lines had to rely on that pump as well. (GM's loss may be our gain.)<P>The way I learned about that pump was almost 20 years ago, when I was working in the parts department of a Chevy dealer. The body shop had their first major front-end collision job on a J-car, and they found this thing after they had stripped the bent sheet metal off the car. BAck then, it took a bit of head-scratching to figure out what it was and why it was there - one of GM "secret sauces."

All us old stick-in-the-mud vacuum wiper folk need that supp. pump, particularly if we eliminate the vacuum pump hung on the oil pump to fix the oil pump properly, and address one of the few errors Packard made in that V8.<BR>Buick had same system in 1957 - I had a Roadmaster 75 and one Saturday I bought new rubber hose to replace washer jar and other components so everything would work properly. Afer getting all new hoses in place I took it out for a ride. As I pulled away from one red light I glanced in rearview mirror and saw a cloud of blue smoke - "someone's really burning oil", I thought. At next red light when I pulled out I discovered it was me! The vehicles behind me had to wait for the next light! When I got home I disconnected washer hoses and it quit burning oil. Buick did not have a check valve from the vacuum pump to the junction and there was a split in the line inside the oil pan. It would suck oil up when it was idling because the vacuum pump pressure was less than the engine itself. Long story, but I still laugh when I think of those folks watching that Buick disappear into a blue cloud.

i went up to the yard today and rooted around about 25 different early to mid 80's Gm products listed on the motorhome web site but left empty handed. Maybe i didnt know where to look for the vac. pump???? I followed the hose from the power unit looking for 'T's' and looked all over the engine compartments but could not find any trace of a vac pump. There r a few more such cars up there but they will have to wait for cooler weather.<P>I did find 5 excellent cast iron plates 1/2 inch thick that oil pump bottoms could be made from. They were ez to remove from the old filling station gas pumps so i got those.

I read in a Motor Manual that a splash shield had to be removed on the drivers side fender, but I saw no shield and could not find hose link to booster, either.