Vacuum wipers / vacuum tank

[WPVT]

My 1929 White has a Stewart Warner vacuum tank to provide fuel to the carburetor. I'm putting it back into operation. The vacuum inlet fitting on the tank has an old (and maybe original) tee branching off that was intentionally plugged at some point. I assume this was for the Trico vacuum wiper motor. At some later time, someone ran the wiper vacuum line to the air vent tube on the vacuum tank. They may have just seen the bare vent tube and the wiper hose hanging nearby, and thought they were reconnecting it.

Is my intuition correct? Running the wiper from the air vent tube seems like a questionable idea. It's difficult to determine what was original, since the cab (and wipers) were manufactured by a different company than the chassis. For this reason, parts such as wipers are not covered in the White parts or maintenance book. 

Thanks. 

[MikeC5]

I does sound likely.  I think most are T-d at the vacuum inlet for the wipers.

[Friartuck]

There are two very different air lines here. The vacuum is obvious, to use the engine's vacuum to draw fuel from the tank and to run the TRICO wiper. The second is the air vent. The fuel must have a vent to gravity feed into the lower (outer tank) and further to the Carb. The air vent would not produce any appreciable vacuum anyway to run the wiper. Run a copper line from the Tee connector into the cab as far as possible and complete with  short rubber line onto the wiper. Flare nuts are available from many sources such as McMaster Carr. The wiper should be rebuilt with good seals to ensure it works properly and to ensure its not a source for a vacuum leak.

[WPVT]

Thanks. That's what I thought. Somebody just saw the air tube and the dangling wiper hose and decided to put them together. 

Somebody else probably plugged the correct tee years ago because the wipers were leaking vacuum.