Electric vacuum pump

[TNBrett]

So my vacuum pump gave up on Friday. First thing I noticed was AC only coming out of the defrost. I finally had a chance to look into it yesterday, and the pump is only pulling a couple inches at idle. Not even enough to work the HVAC controls with nothing else connected.

I’ve replaced more belt driven vacuum pumps on ford trucks than I can count. They have always seemed problematic. I can’t say that I’ve actually seen one last 100k miles. Others may have fine luck with them, but my point is only that I have no love for them. Also, I feel like I can always hear the darn things puffing away, and I don’t like it. My truck is already hydro boosted, so I only need vacuum for HVAC and cruise control. I’m also running V belts so no biggie to delete it.

I went ahead and ordered a Dorman 904-214 electric vacuum pump and pigtail from Amazon. It’s the pump for the superduty trucks. Does anyone know if that pump will pull enough vacuum to operate the cruise control? If not does anyone know what is needed to convert from the vacuum cruise control to the electric? The Haynes manual shows the same wiring diagram for both, but that doesn’t really seem likely.

The electric pump and pigtail were about half the price of a replacement belt driven pump. I should have it tomorrow. Plus it’s Amazon, if it doesn’t work I can send it back. I’ll be sure to post some pics of the install.

 

[Big Bart]

TNBrett,

In hear you, my last pump lasted only 20,000 miles. My new one is making more “puffing noise” as you put than my last one. My last one failed on the freeway while I had a trailer loaded with 4 snowmobiles in tow. My vacuum sensor brake warning light system failed (Tuna can), I realized on the off ramp I would not be able to stop if the light went red. Making things worse that trailer has surge brakes so did little to help me slow down. Fortunately the light stayed green and I pull over after getting through the light safely.

Perhaps like this membership does for things like glow plugs, head gaskets, injectors, and IP’s we should poll or track which brand of vacuum pump seems to last the longest.

As IDIBronco has shared many times we all should add a vacuum gauge to our gauge cluster since these pumps are not reliable.

Or maybe we need to find an affordable vacuum warning alarm to mimic the alarm most delivery trucks with air brakes have.

Something like this

Anver VLS-8 Vacuum Leakage Sensor

Hudson, MA - Anver Corp. introduces a new vacuum leakage sensor that calibrates itself to maximum vacuum rather than a preset level and provides an

www.designworldonline.com

 

[Big Bart]

TNBrett,

In hear you, my last pump lasted only 20,000 miles. My new one is making more “puffing noise” as you put it, than my last one. My last one failed on the freeway while I had a trailer loaded with 4 snowmobiles in tow. My vacuum sensor brake warning light system failed (Tuna can), I realized on the off ramp I would not be able to stop if the light went red. Making things worse that trailer has surge brakes so it did little to help me slow down. Fortunately the light stayed green and I pull over after getting through the light safely.

Perhaps for folks who are not up for Hydroboost, we do what this membership does for things like glow plugs, head gaskets, clutches, injectors, and IP’s. Poll and track which brand of vacuum pump seems to last the longest. Then the membership can have an idea of how often to change as a maintenance item. But maybe in this quest find a brand that can go +60,000 miles vs my pathetic 20,000.

As IDIBronco has shared many times we all should add a vacuum gauge to our gauge cluster since these pumps are not reliable.

Or maybe we need to find an affordable vacuum warning alarm to mimic the alarm most delivery trucks with air brakes have.

Something like this

Anver VLS-8 Vacuum Leakage Sensor

Hudson, MA - Anver Corp. introduces a new vacuum leakage sensor that calibrates itself to maximum vacuum rather than a preset level and provides an

www.designworldonline.com

 

[TNBrett]

Well for my truck, I have zero interest in adding a vacuum gauge or warning indicator. My tuna can has never worked as long as I have owned the truck. In my case vacuum is only for cruise control and controlling where the air blows out. Certainly not a safety concern, as even in inclement weather, it defaults to the defrost position.

For those with vacuum boosters though, some way of monitoring vacuum is probably worthwhile.

 

[Cubey]

Considering how cheap and easy it is to change a vac pump, why? Worst part is changing the pulley but it's not that bad with the proper toolset.

(EDIT: OMG O'Reilly has gone insane on the price, $152 now! Not so cheap anymore. Well, Amazon has a decent one for $83 but O'Reilly's has a lifetime warranty. I got an O'Reilly one in mid 2017 and swapped it to the RV in 2019 for the warranty vs a cheaper amazon one at the time that was $62. The O'Reilly one has over 20k miles on it and it's still kicking. The Amazon one went into the truck since it never really gets driven anymore)

My new one is making more “puffing noise” as you put than my last one.

A bad pump sound vs a new one. Little/no puffing and a higher pitched squeak.

New video by Ben

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[franklin2]

As long as you keep the vacuum storage canister functioning on the cruise vacuum circuit, the superduty pump should be large enough. You should have a plastic ball over on the driver's side for it. Or some other type of vacuum tank.

 

[TNBrett]

As long as you keep the vacuum storage canister functioning on the cruise vacuum circuit, the superduty pump should be large enough. You should have a plastic ball over on the driver's side for it. Or some other type of vacuum tank.

Good to hear. I have the coffee can type canister on the passenger side, and was planning on keeping it. I guess I’ll see for myself soon enough.

 

[Austin86250]

dont power brakes have vacuum too?

 

[TNBrett]

dont power brakes have vacuum too?

I converted to hydro boost.

 

[franklin2]

Good to hear. I have the coffee can type canister on the passenger side, and was planning on keeping it. I guess I’ll see for myself soon enough.

I will have to look again, but I thought my truck had two vacuum reservoirs. The one on the pass side for the HVAC and another one on the driver's side dedicated to the cruise. May have been another vehicle though.

 

[chillman88]

I will have to look again, but I thought my truck had two vacuum reservoirs. The one on the pass side for the HVAC and another one on the driver's side dedicated to the cruise. May have been another vehicle though.

You're correct. There's one on the heater box.


I don't have functional cruise (separate issue) but the super duty pump runs my hvac controls fine without a reservoir hooked up.

 

[TNBrett]

So, it’s in and working….mostly. I ordered a Dorman pump off of Amazon. I know Dorman has a reputation of being hit or miss, but I figured my odds were better than the obviously cheap Chinese junk. Anyway, it was dead on arrival but I wasn’t going to be deterred. I figured I would dig into it before sending it back. Turns out there’s a vacuum switch inside that shuts the pump off when it reaches a certain level of vacuum. The switch wasn’t making contact, so I bypassed it. I didn’t take any pics of the insides, but it’s pretty easy to pop the side cover off of it to access it. My thought was to go ahead and prove the concept, source a better quality pump if I can, and send the Dorman one back.

So long story short, my AC blows where I tell it, and my cruise control works. The only down side is the pump runs all the time now. I can’t hear it running over the engine, but I have to assume it will kill the pump sooner or later running non stop. I took a couple of pics, but I didn’t look at them, I just kept working and they are blurry and worthless. The only decent pic is the pile of stuff I removed.

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The little motor on the pump can’t draw more than a couple of amps, so I powered it from the plug for the vacuum warning switch AKA the tuna can. There were three wires. Red with yellow stripe was hot in run, black was ground, and the green wire goes to the brake warning light. I spliced the red and black to the pigtail I bought, and just capped off the green wire. The pig tail had four wires, but the pump only has to pins, so I removed the unnecessary wires. For mounting the pump I simply drilled a couple of holes in the plastic wheel well liner, and used the rubber nubs to mount it. Plumbing was pretty simple. I used a short piece of vacuum hose from the pump to a tee. Then one barb to the HVAC circuit, and the other to the vacuum canister and cruise control. I’m pretty happy so far, but like I said, I’d still like to source a better quality pump.

 

[The_Josh_Bear]

As soon as I saw "Dorman" I went
No surprise on it being DOA.



But I do hope you find a solid unit! It's always nice to simplify under the hood and have things working as they should.

 

[Cubey]

As soon as I saw "Dorman" I went
No surprise on it being DOA.



But I do hope you find a solid unit! It's always nice to simplify under the hood and have things working as they should.

I put a Dorman vac pump on the F250 mid 2017 from O'Reilly's, then moved it to the RV early 2019 since it has a lifetime warranty, and it's still fine.

I put an extra low priced "used" (opened and returned, but not actually used) Dorman Saginaw pump from Amazon on the RV over a year ago, still fine too.

Maybe I'm just very lucky?

 

[TNBrett]

Here’s a couple of pics as promised.

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You must be registered for see images attach

It looks like these little vacuum pumps got used on several different makes and models. I found an NOS Mopar pump from sparks surplus on eBay. Less than $50 shipped. It should be here in a couple of days. I’ve got a couple hundred miles on the Dorman so far and everything seems fine with it running full time. But there’s definitely no need for it to be running that much.