[jeffsclassics]

I'm in the middle of my winter projects on my '70 XR7 convertible, one of which is to try to fix the vacuum leak which causes my headlights to pop back open an hour or two after I park the car. As a side note, I bought a new check valve and that actually seems to have made things worse, so I'm installing the original back in the car.
I've replaced all the vacuum lines under the hood, but when I got to the ones that connect to the headlight switch I found the firewall grommet. It looks like the vacuum hoses are molded into the grommet, and it looks pretty tough to remove, although I do have the dash pad and instrument cluster out already for other reasons.
Is the grommet available new with the hoses already molded in place, or is there another solution? I'm considering just leaving it as-is, since the vacuum leak is small, and the line to the vacuum accumulator tank was in particularly bad shape, probably the culprit. But, since everything else is already removed this would be time to replace it.
What have you guys done in the past?
Thanks,
Jeff

 

[towcat]

On the 70,s right out from the firewall, there are two piece plastic connectors, these usually leak, if you are replaceing the hoses, I would run new hoses up to the plastic connectors and replace the old connector with straight new connectors. leave the hoses through the firewall and cut off a small portion of each hose where they fit on the headlight switch for tighter connections, use a little white grease on fittings.

 

[wbferran]

i have done it all and in the end what fixed the problem was a new vacuum cannister up front. have you replaced that yet?

 

[jeffsclassics]

i have done it all and in the end what fixed the problem was a new vacuum cannister up front. have you replaced that yet?

Hoping to avoid that, if possible, so I'm going to try replacing the hoses and fittings and see if that helps. My vacuum pump is back in my other garage, but I can bring it over to test the canister if this doesn't help.

Thanks for ideas!
Jeff