Need Hydrovac Filter Mount

[MSN Member]

From: moparmotivator
Sent: 3/9/2006

I need the fitting/mount that the hydravac filter screws on to.  The po had routed the breather tube to the top of the engine air filter where it can suck in nice gas fumes.  I have the correct new filter element but need the base.

Thanks
moparmotivator

[MSN Member]

From: rlm98253
Sent: 3/10/2006 1:12 AM

When I couldn't find the HydroVac filter mount for my 1974 Expo I took the filter and started prowling hardware stores and plumbing supply houses. Finally found a screw on lid on a can of PVC pipe cleaner that was the correct size and thread. Drilled an appropriately sized hole in the lid, soldered in a piece of copper tube to fit the hose and mounted the lid, threads up, to the floor. Worked like a charm.

[Cooneytoones]

Sent: 3/11/2006 

There's one thing for sure, and that is one of the truly unique and inspiring elements of this group, and why it deserves to be and is the best forum on the globe... "If a Winnebago has it, and you can't find it.......someone on Classic Winnebago's will make it...."

My hats are off to all the Winngineer's at CW.....
Timmy

[DanD2Soon]

Sent: 3/11/2006

You're absolutely right about the Winngineers Timmy! 

Goes back to "Necessity is a Mother" thing or, more correctly,  "Necessity is the mother of invention" and the value of this group (Priceless) applies to all of us who are addicted to our Classics.

I was about to tell MoMo (His is a Travco) that I had found a paint thinner can lid could fit the filter when Sob reposted the solution message above.  In the 2 Soon ('72 Explorer) we found the filter rolling around in the base of one of the dinette seats right after we bought her and I set it aside wondering what it was for.  Found the mount a few weeks later, in the floor, beneath a plastic dishpan that had been used to store motor oil & trans fluid, under the same seat.

Finally put 2 & 2 together and discovered  they Belonged to each other!  'Twas only then I followed the hole in the floor - to the hose - to the Hydrovac - Huh? - What The? - Just another one of those solutions that only lead to more questions!  Y'all ever wonder if the Classic RV Gnomes present us with these little serial mysteries to keep us sucked deeper into our addiction to these oldies?  Or, maybe just to get a free ride to visit their buddies in the boneyards?...

Alternative Filter Solution - When we replaced the 2 Soon dinette with a J-couch, the storage drawer under the couch only cleared the Hydrovac filter mount by about a half inch - the top edge of the mount and the carpet were almost even.  I really didn't want to move the filter mount or mess with rerouting the Hydrovac hose.  So, believing that the filter's purpose is just to provide the Hydrovac port with a clean source of air, (e.g. free of foreign matter)  I sandwiched several gun cleaning patches between two pieces of nylon screen-wire - trimmed the "sandwich" with scissors to fit snuggly into the threads of the mount and poked in a plastic washer (cut & drilled from the inside lid of a prescription bottle) to keep the "wafer filter" snug & flush.  Can you say "Kluge Job?" / "Jerry Rigged?" 

Dave Denison can probably tell us the Pros & Cons of such a solution, but I felt better about having done "something" to protect it - and after about 2 years now, it seems to be working fine.

DanD

[denisondc]

Sent: 3/11/2006

The booster should get the driest clean air you can provide for it.
I haven't opened the boosters on my Winny yet, but the times I have opened vacuum boosters on other vehicles, I have ALWAYS been astonished how the muck and stuff could get in there, and how it could still be working! On my old Horch, the booster is a DeWandre design, whose air inlet filter (a screen) was under the car, on the booster side. The chamber was half full of eucalyptus leaves, well packed into a soggy mush. On a '40 Brockway that I once considered converting into a motorhome, the booster ( an earlier hydrovac) was partly filled with oil soaked cobwebs and dead spiders.

[MSN Member]

From: moparmotivator
Sent: 3/11/2006

I just installed rebuilt hydravacs so I really want to get the setup right.
Mine were both half full of brake fluid.

I just found a backwoods salvage yard locally that has a bunch of old Dodge chassis motorhomes, I am going  to see if I can luck into some parts there.

Thanks,
moparmotivator

[75Travco]

Sent: 3/12/2006

I found the adapter, Dodge part number 2225 663, at Valley Vintage Auto Parts vvap.com.  The filter on my old Travco had been disconnected for a long time; the rear shell on one of the hydrovacs had several large rust holes and both units had a huge amount of debris inside them.

[Oz]

My concern is that the original booster has a "neck" and gasket between the booster and the bracket and the neck has an inlet pipe for the hose to the filter by my seat but... the NAPA one doesn't. Instead, it has a longer rubber bellows with an air filter washer and holes in the rubber. I expect this is standard for most vehicles with this kit under the hood not stuck on the frame. I have been looking around WWW sites and found Cardone which has a combined unit for a D300 - with 440 engine for about 150US$ - about the same as NAPA and it doesn't have the piped neck either. I'm thinking of combining the old neck with the new and modifying the bellows to fit. The NAPA parts are 10-1576 and 54-73143.

Does anyone have any more sources or modification ideas on this?

[Dunnohow2]

I had the same problem.  I found a screw can top and drilled a center hole large enough for a garden hose barbed male connector (sounds a bit uncomfortable). I needed an extra hand but with string I pulled the hose bit up through the floor and the inverted lid and secured the lid to the floor holding it in place with a hose clamp around the barbed end.
Underneath, the male threads of the connector were easily attached to a female connector which was in turn hose clamped to a piece of pipe connected to the booster.
However, having bought a new booster, the "neck" with the pipe to the filter is not supplied but replaced with a filter washer around the brake rod and held in place by a longer rubber bellows thingy.
Unless I can find a better booster i.e. complete with neck, I'll "Heath Robinson" it to work.
I'll try and post some pics too.
One thing that did drive me nuts was topping up the brake reservoirs with half an inch of space between the lid and the drivers floor and just enough space to shred your arm by holding a pipe and funnel and brake fluid bottle via the uncovered engine.  The solution was more obvious than the effort but...
I cut a hole in the floor above the brake reservoirs and fitted a hinged lid and catch which works brilliantly.  It took three days!  The floor is double-skinned and tough to cut through - there are square cross bars between the floor skins.  Finally, after a drill, jig saw with super strong blades, a cut off saw, air compressor and metal shear and chisel, Dremel and ten discs, even a hack saw, I used a metal cutting blade in my reciprocating saw and it was done in seconds.   A piano hinge and some rust paint finished the job.  Now for the carpeting and fixing the light dip switch where I can find it and it will be time to find something else to do...like finish the brakes.