[bb1]

On My '73 There are two canisters on the right side of the engine compartment. Can someone please tell what they are for and how they are suppose to be hooked up?

[silver69]

One is the charcoal canister and the other is the ac/vent vacuum canister, the charcoal canister will have a rubber hose coming off a metal tube from under teh tranny tunnel and maybe 1 small one?? ffrom somewhere. the vacuum canister will have a vacuum line from the intake manifold to the larger fitting and a small line going through the firewall to your temp controls. hope this helps a little
joe

[bb1]

When I purchased the car they were not hooked up. Is this something That I can leave off or do I need to reattach them to the car

[72 rag]

You don't have to hook them up but you should. The charcoal canister is to absorb fuel vapors when the car is shut off. If they are venting into the engine compartment then there is a potential fire hazard.
The vaccume canister is there to supply vaccum eto the ac controls when your engine is at a low vacume state.Like when excellerating it keeps all the air doors under your dash in the correct position.You may notice a change in heating or cooling when excellerating.
Besides that it looks better under the hood with everything in place.

[silver69]

Im with 72rag, stuff like that you need to have even though the car does not "need" it to run or drive.
they are both important, if you leave the charcoal canister disconnected you may get a strong fuel odor inside the car which can mess you and your passengers up and as 72rag pointed out - fuel vapors are more explosive than liquid fuel. The vacuum canister keeps the vent selection where you put them because they are held in place by vacuum filled actuator"pots" which also have a spring iside of them to return to a certain position when the holding vacuum is routed to another pot - like from defrost to high - lo vent. When you accelerate engine vacuum drops off and your vents will shift to and fro. that vacuum canister acts as s reserve to maintain vent selections in such cases. I know this is long winded but it is exactly what 72rag said, just with a tad more detail so you can dedcide what to do.

[Joes72/65]

I have a '72 Grande with the same setup. Unfortunately, I've had to disconnect the charcoal cannister because the plastic fitting to the air cleaner broke and the cheesy hose deteriorated and fell apart. I have been unable to locate these parts anywhere. Anybody out there have any leads?

[bb1]

Thanks guys i will try to find one and get it hooked back up. Is there a diagram that shows how they are supposed to be connected?

[silver69]

Open a new thread asking for the vacuum and emissions diagrams, somebody here has it I'm sure.