84 carb bowl vent solenoids - where to find replacements?

[Saturn V]

I decided to test my carb bowl vent solenoids. With the air cleaner removed, I disconnected the hoses at the carb bowls and turned the ignition ON. Using a Mityvac pump to test, these solenoid-operated valves (SOV's) both appeared to be open. My understanding is that these vent SOVs need to be closed anytime the ignition is ON, per JACook's post in the following thread:

http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...-5-0-Bowl-Vent

So I decided to pull the SOVs for inspection and test. This task was a little more difficult than I had hoped, but I got them pulled with no damage. Applying the leads to the battery (with the help of a spade connector and jumper wire), I saw that one SOV is OK (closes when energized), but the other one still whistles when I blow through it when energized. Since one SOV works, but both appeared to leak with the ignition ON, now I'm wondering if these are even getting energized. Both ground wires were bolted to the engine block and both connectors were connected. I'll check that electrical circuit next and also check for other hose leaks. Any other ideas?

I did notice that the two SOVs have slightly different part numbers (A1A vs. A2A). Perhaps one has been previously replaced? Is there any significance to the different part numbers? Is one just a later version?

E3ZE-9B982-A2A - silver Ford label, black ground wire, this one is not working (pictured)

E3ZE-9B982-A1A - blue Ford label, white ground wire, this one is working OK

I started searching for a replacement SOV, but am having trouble finding what I need. I checked NPD, Rock Auto, Green Sales, Foxresto, LRS ... nothing. I can find SOV's (Motorcraft CX239) on eBay and other sites, but in all pics the ground lead on these appears to be too short. As you can see in the pic, the ground lead needs to be about 3 times as long as the power lead. I suppose I could splice in more wire for the ground connection, but I hate to do that.

Any suggestions for where to find new replacement SOVs with the correct length ground wire?

[Saturn V]

OK, I checked the electrical circuit and both connectors are getting ~ battery voltage with ignition ON. I also vacuum tested the rest of the metal and rubber tubing between the carb vent tubes and the SOVs ... no leaks. So I'm not sure why the one good SOV appeared to be leaking when originally tested, but was OK when I tested it after I pulled it.

The bad SOV will click when energized and has about the same resistance (~50 ohms) as the good SOV, so I assume the valve is broken. I didn't see any good way to take the assembly apart for possible repair, at least not without destroying the case.

[Saturn V]

It might be a few weeks before I find a suitable replacement SOV. In the meantime, I'm thinking about putting in a temporary tee that would connect both bowl vents to the one good SOV. This would increase the vapor load on the respective vapor canister, but I don't think that would hurt for just a few weeks driving it only a few times. Any comments?

[JACook]

The bowl vent solenoids can be found on eBay, but you may have to settle for the "short ground wire"
version that was used on the 2V cars. The ground wire is not hard to swap though.

Back around '89, when I did the '85 5.0 swap into my old '78 wagon, ran both bowl vent solenoids,
but teed the line after the solenoids to run to a single canister. No complaints. The only question I
would have about teeing into a single solenoid would be the relative pressure reference between the
two bowls could be thrown off. But I would think that's still gonna be better than running with a bad
solenoid.

One other option would be to put the good one on the primary side, if it's not already, and temporarily
cap the secondary bowl vent.

[Saturn V]

Thanks for the comments, Jeff. I didn't think about the difference in the reference between the two bowls, but agree that would be better than my present situation where at least one bowl is venting all the time when the engine is running. I'm hoping that this might at least partly explain why the carb seems to be running rich. I recently installed an AFR monitor with engine speed input and see that at warm idle AFR is about 12 and as low as 10.8 on full-throttle passes. I've logged some data (including trends of AFR and RPM) and plan to start a new thread on that topic soon.

I had decided that I'd buy the first new/used Ford/Motorcraft part that I found (avoiding McParts, as you say it) and splice in a longer ground wire, if needed. Today I found and bought the exact part that I need on eBay ... it has the longer wire.

I'm going to try and work my way through the rest of the vacuum system with my Mityvac to see what else may be broken, leaking, or missing.

[Travis T]

If you need spares, I just ripped all the emissions junk out of mine and it may still work. Just let me know by PM.

[Saturn V]

I didn't do any more vacuum system testing today, but I did install the NOS bowl vent SOV that I received this week, along with the other one (original?) that still works (I had removed the bad one and good one during inspection/troubleshooting). Oddly, the ground wire lug on the new SOV (same p/n as original) is a little smaller than the original, so I had to ream it out a little to get the block bolt through it. With the ignition ON, the new SOV holds tight when blowing into it, but I can tell that the other original SOV doesn't seem to hold as tight. The plug seal is probably worn out. I don't think it'll hurt much for now, since there shouldn't be much pressure inside the bowls with the engine running, right?

In case you are desperate and want to try and repair the valve portion of the bowl vent SOV (and as long as the solenoid still "clicks"), see the following article, which also gives you an idea about how the valve works. This guy's got a lot more patience and time than I have.

http://www.ifsja.org/forums/vb/showthread.php?t=129255

[JACook]

Cool article. I've opened these up before, and usually what I would find is the rubber disc inside had turned
to mush from the additives used to boost cheap gasoline. Hadn't really considered using a piece of gasket
material, but I had thought about cutting a new disc from some Viton sheet material. I hadn't really pursued
it, though, since I had spares.

Thanks for the link.