Missing vacuum pipe

[Tenderfoot]

While adjusting the alternator belt on my 1987 320i I noticed that the dizzy had a vacuum connector with no tube attached. Looking in Haynes it seems it should have two tubes going to it. The one that is missing is the one that goes to the â€Ëapointy' side of the bellows?, the side furthest away from the dizzy. Does anyone know where the pipe should lead to. Many thanks for any help.

[siddiqi1]

Get a pic up buddy, or get onto realoem and try and illustrate it; just a suggestion; i was completely bewildered!

[Tenderfoot]

I just re read it and I've bewildered myself! Will get a pic up as soon as I work out how to.

[siddiqi1]

well visit this website: Click here

then find the illustration you're looking for an then paste the link inside the follwing

PASTE LINK HERE

[Tenderfoot]

Right, here's a picture, and it is worth a thousand words. Pipe '1' is missing on my car, leaving a 1 inch metal connector sticking out of the bellows or whatever it's called. Where should the other end of the pipe go?

siddiqi1 Sorry didn't see your post 'till I posted my pic. The link you give to the parts drawings is very useful. Thanks for your help.

[siddiqi1]

Almost looks like a fuel pressure regualtor but in the completely wrong place!

Hopefuly one of the more experienced zoners will know what this is, odd one that is

[Brianmoooore]

I'm not familiar with these old engines at all, but 1 appears to be the vacuum advance pipe for advancing the ignition timing under closed throttle conditions. The other end should be somewhere on the inlet manifold or throttle body, on the engine side of the butterfly.

[chappie]

Right, here's a picture, and it is worth a thousand words. Pipe '1' is missing on my car, leaving a 1 inch metal connector sticking out of the bellows or whatever it's called. Where should the other end of the pipe go?

siddiqi1 Sorry didn't see your post 'till I posted my pic. The link you give to the parts drawings is very useful. Thanks for your help.

The "bellows" is the vacuum advance for the ignition. The pipe should be connected to the inlet manifold. The car should perform better with it connected as the ignition can respond better to what the engine is doing. Virtually every pre 1990's petrol car uses this system.

[Tenderfoot]

Well I've had a good look around with a torch and can't see any pipe hanging loose or even anywhere a pipe might have come from. If anyone out there with a 320i D reg auto would look on their car and see if the pipe is fitted or not I would be very grateful. Or any suggestions on where to get more info. Many thanks for the replies so far, much appreciated.

[hennabm]

Looking from the NS wing at my distributor then the vacuum pipe for advance and retard unit goes from the unit to a small brass 90 degree angle pipe on the front side of the throttle body (the side nearest to the radiator).

hth

[Tenderfoot]

hennabm, Thanks for taking the time to look, that's good of you. Is your car a 320i? Still can't find anywhere a pipe could go on throttle.

[hennabm]

No mine is a 323 but similar set up with a distributor.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do ... g=13&fg=15

(can't work out how to make this a link)
but if you look at the pic and where the No 32 cap fits then that is where my vacuum pipe goes to.

[Brianmoooore]

Any possibility that your engine has been fitted with a later throttle body? Possibly a 325 one?

[Tenderfoot]

Brianmoooore. This is family owned from new. Should be just as it left the factory.

hennabm. My throttle has got a blanking cap on this connector. I'm thinking that only one pipe is used and the connector on the dizzy has lost its blanking cap at some time. I'm going to start carjacking people in B&Q carparks and demand to look at their engines.

[hennabm]

The vacuum advance on the distributor would have been connected from the factory otherwise the advance and retard of the ignition would not have worked.

Can you post pics of throttle body?

[tezk]

I found there aren't many owners of earlier 320's on here.. Though there are a couple..

Cant get a good look at the back end of the dizzy but here's pic from above :

Top connector (A) looks to go into some kind of valve and I can't see where the lower hose (B) connects, but must be around the back somewhere..


Here's where the bigger hose connects..


And the lower, smaller one.



Hope that helps!

[hennabm]

So does the valve that the hose with the red stripe is fitted actually part of the distributor? The large unit just above where you have printed B on the photo 1 - that is your advance retuard unit.

In photo 2 then pipe a connects there and in photo three pipe b connects there - yes?
If the unit with pipe a connected to it is actually connected to the adv/ret unit then all is well.

[Tenderfoot]

tezk. Thanks for those pics. Your setup looks the same as the drawings on realoem. Here are some pics of my setup. The connector on the distributor shows no sign of ever having a hose fitted, and the connector on the throttle that your hose â€ËaA' in your second pic goes to is capped. The hose from the â€Ëaback' of the dizzy advance unit on my car goes to the same place as the hose on your car, â€ËaB' in your third pic.

Hennabm My advance unit still has one hose attached, at the back, so must be doing something. Must admit car runs ok, but would like to reduce consumption!

[Brianmoooore]

Feed the last seven digits of your VIN into here: http://bmwfans.info/original/ then go to engine, vacuum control.
Refer to the pictures, and the list. Only parts whose numbers are shown in the list should be fitted to your car.

[Tenderfoot]

Brianmoooore. Many thanks for that good information. As you can see it looks like someone has nicked a valve (16) and a couple of bits of hose from my car. Then been nice enough to cap the connector on the throttle. Can that be true? I wonder what difference fitting the parts will make? I'm going to think about this for a while. Thanks again to all who have spent time on helping me with this.

[hennabm]

Mine has No 12 but no No 16. Looks like they do the same job, whatever that is. On mine the dizzy pipe runs straight through 15 and up to the throttle body. The pipe on 12 is just looped 9 to 13. Runs fine and has been like that for years.

[The_Diddler]

Tenderfoot

Did you ever get around to looking at this in more depth, i think i have the same problem, was just interested in any results you may of had.