[Dick Boneske]

I'm building a Tripower for a '63 Bonneville Convertible. It has power brakes, PCV, and distributor vacuum advance, all of which have sources for manifold vacuum.

I know the A/C cars use vacuum for the controls. Do the cars with regular heaters use vacuum for the heater controls?

I need to know whether to install the small vacuum pipe from the center carb tee or to install the brass plug as the later non-A/C GTO's used.

I've attached pictures of a '62 setup I recently restored so you can see the vacuum line I'm referring to. This one was for an A/C car. As you can see, it also has vacuum linkage for the end carbs.

Thank you.

[pfilean]

It may depend on the car. In 61 (and perhaps the same in 63) there were two heater systems. The Circ-L-Aire heater did use vacuum. But the Direct-Aire heater looks in the shop manual to have been totally cable controlled. That is, unless your Direct-Aire heater was paired with AC, then there was a vacuum control which was added to the DIrect-Aire control.

I know one of the members here likes to say that engineers do something for a reason. But that seems to defy good reasoning in the interest of making it complex.

[Tom Vaught]

My Uncle used to say that in the late 50s and early 60s, that people did not have a lot of money so the people that bought Pontiacs many times bought the car without A/C.
Farmers being high on the list for that deal.

If the people had the cash they stepped up to the Buick or the Cadillac that for the most part came with the A/C. But what did he know, he was only a dealer of Pontiac, Buick, Olds, Cadillac, and GMC Trucks for 67 years.

*If the factory Direct-Aire Heater system combined with A/C it was probably a "add on".
Very few sold. Even rarer would be a Convertible Pontiac with A/C and a Tri-Power Engine. Add-ons are typically "cobbled" if you want to be polite about the subject.

I remember the long pipe on a couple of those old A/C cars. (Vs the stud vacuum source deal that some engines used.)

Tom V.