How to Rebuild a Vapor Canister

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sldwys

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Nov 21, 2020
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Decided to tackle replacing my vapor canister. I noticed some charcoal pieces when I removed it for another project. So been wanting to address it.

I thought you could just buy a new one. However, when I received my new vapor canister from rock auto. It had 3 ports and not the two that was on my car.

So I decided to marrying the new part with the old.

I cut out the bottom of my old canister. Removed all the contents( two filters the charcoal).

I removed the contents of the new canister and put in my old. Fairly easy and I did it pretty crudely.

All I have left is to glue the plastic piece back and install.

Hope this helps anyone.
 

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ck80

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There's easier methods....

Check out post #23 I wrote a few years ago.

 
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sldwys

Greasemonkey
Nov 21, 2020
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There's easier methods....

Check out post #23 I wrote a few years ago.

I did it in about 20 mins after the kids went down tonight. I’m not the tactician you are. Haha. But good write up.
 

ck80

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I did it in about 20 mins after the kids went down tonight. I’m not the tactician you are. Haha. But good write up.
Back in the day when you could get these cars as 15 year old daily drivers for $250 I was chopping and rebuilding them. Part of that meant lots of then-worthless spare pieces to take apart different ways.

One of my pasttimes was looking at sealed units and figuring out how they were initially put together, then reverse engineering it so I could put it back together and look the same.

Glad to hear lining the cut parts up and getting them glued together didn't take long though.
 

sldwys

Greasemonkey
Nov 21, 2020
126
66
28
Back in the day when you could get these cars as 15 year old daily drivers for $250 I was chopping and rebuilding them. Part of that meant lots of then-worthless spare pieces to take apart different ways.

One of my pasttimes was looking at sealed units and figuring out how they were initially put together, then reverse engineering it so I could put it back together and look the same.

Glad to hear lining the cut parts up and getting them glued together didn't take long though.
I gotcha. Yea I just started down the G-body rabbit hole. Lol. And I have not glued the plastic bottom piece back yet. I hope it lines up pretty easy.
 

ck80

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Feb 18, 2014
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I gotcha. Yea I just started down the G-body rabbit hole. Lol. And I have not glued the plastic bottom piece back yet. I hope it lines up pretty easy.
Your challenge is probably going to be getting it to sit flat/level together. Not sure if you've brainstormed that yet?

They make miniature binder clips that might clamp some of the cut sticks together before using the glue. Another thought is using floral wire passed behind around the concentric rings either side of the cut portions then twisted together on the outside to hold things taut and level, then gluing. Something of that nature?
 

jiho

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Jul 26, 2013
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Why not just figure out which 1 of the 3 ports you don't need and cap it?
 
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69hurstolds

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Good job on the rebuild. I am fortunate to be able to just grab a new canister if needed. And don't lose those mounting clips. PITA to find new ones unless you scour the j/y. According to parts information, GM p/n 554665. Need 2. The bolts are 12337828 (M6.3 x 1.8 x 20).

Seemingly, IMO, the biggest issues with these canisters are:
1) They were designed to be throwaways never intended to be rebuilt, as only one, real replaceable part was designed for these, and that's the bottom yellow-ish filter pad.
2) The charcoal "retainer" foam or filter whatever they call it, eventually rots out and fails. Probably weren't designed to last 35 or more years. There should be a top and bottom "retainer" foam. If it's damaged or missing, you could have problems.
3) When the top retainer fails, it's usually only noticed because you are picking charcoal boogers out of your 307 carburetor where the canister purge control valves and bits on top of the engine go, and you'd only find that after trying to hunt down why the car isn't running quite right.

If you're going to run the system complete, then run it complete. If you're not going to hook it to the engine, then cap off the port(s) leaving only the one that says "tank" hooked up. The fuel tank vapors will still vent through the charcoal filter regardless, as that's what it does. You still want the tank to vent through the charcoal. Once the engine warms up, the TVS and CCV operate to purge the vapors out of the canister and "recycle" them, and the air that gets sucked up through the canister to replace the purged volume is through that bottom filter. 80s emissions at work.

It's still better than the old-school late 60s early 70s emissions junk when it came to tank venting. You had two vent lines going to a single tube with a plastic-housed fiber filter mounted up under the body above the rear axle to vent the tank.
 
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Clone TIE Pilot

Comic Book Super Hero
Aug 14, 2011
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Galaxy far far away
Why not just figure out which 1 of the 3 ports you don't need and cap it?

The issue is that the double port likely contains some sort of control valve. It seems that most vapor canisters have built in control valves. G body canisters seem to lack any built in valves and use remote valves instead. Sadly it seem G body valveless canisters are discontinued while mznufacturers still make the mord complex canisters with built in valves for other car models. Once again G bodies get the short end of the stick for being between old school and modern. Its a whole automotive era the auto industry is memory holing.

One doesn't need to buy a new canister to donate its guts to rebuild your original canister. You can get either compressed packing foam or charcoal foam and activated charcoal from a pet store.
 
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