Busted Vacuum Valve on Tripower..
 

Advice needed..

I recently bought a '59 Tripower manifold and carbs. The guy removed and boxed everything except the front vacuum port valve (whatever you call it)..

Between the UPS conveyor system and the goon squad it got busted it off..

Should I just ditch the entire vacuum based system and go with progressive linkage or are these valves available for cheap?

I'll be using the carbs on my '60 Safari with proper '60 manifold.

The '59 manifold w/water neck will be up for grabs soon.

Personally I'd go with mechanical linkage. From what I've read the vac system can be very tricky.

But then again, I'm having my own tri-power issues, so I'm not expert.

Thanks for the comeback good buddy.. I suppose I can go with the mechanical linkage and just hang on to the vac system.. Where are all the tri=power experts these days?

Agreed, that mechanical linkage is simple and reliable. However, the original vacuum linkage has one advantage- that you can use almost full-throttle on the center carb for "normal" driving, with the end carbs ready-and-willing at full throttle. Mechanical linkage limits you to just half-throttle on the center 2-bbl. My only complaint with the stock vacuum linkage on a '57 was the slow closing of the end carbs- a little unnerving for the engine to keep pulling for about a full second after taking your foot out of it! I changed to mechanical linkage instead of trying to improve the bleed-down of the vacuum diaphragm. I've thought that the best-of-both-worlds would be a microswitch/relay/solenoid setup to operate the end carbs; but it would require quite a monstrous solenoid.

There are two different "valves" of which you may be referring:

(1) The vacuum motor, a metal cannister maybe 3 inches in diameter housing the diaphragm which opens the end carbs.
(2) The secondary lockout water valve, a "pot metal" casting inserted into the water jacket in the front of the manifold, and retained by three small screws.

Both are available, neither are "for cheap".

If you are referring to (1), you might wish to consider the mechanical linkage.

If you are referring to (2), simply bypass the valve by reconnecting the vacuum hoses. Most of them are no longer functional anyway; nor you would not have the secondary lockout on mechanical linkage. Just remember to NOT exercise the end carbs until the engine is at normal temperature.

And Jack (post above) is right on concerning driveability. When I "upgraded" to mechanical linkage on my '64 GTO with the two-speed dogmatic transmission, I increased (rather than decreased) the 1/4 mile times! Perhaps the Pontiac engineers really knew what they were doing when they continued to use vacuum linkage with automatic trannys after mechanical was available with the sticks.

Jon.

Oh, the diaphragm part is fine it's the secondary water jacket lockout valve that's busted.. I guess I'll be OK just with a metal plate over it.. Thanks for the advice.. I'm hoping this unit works out..

I have both vacuum and mechanical on different cars. My take on this would be if your going to drive the car save the vacuum linkage and switch to the mechanical. If your showing the car for points then by all means use the vacuum linkage.

I'm interested in the '59 intake and water neck.

PM sent.

I ran the mechanical linkage on my 60 with all vac items attached. But not connected.
With the big factory air cleaner the mechanical linkage was not visible. Unless you stood on your head. ;)