Hey Bill,
if you get this, I may need some tips on doing that hose replacement a bit early.... I was under the hood today, and checked the hoses for resiliancy, and sure enough a plastic straw is could stand up to more of a vacuum. One of my friends here looked at it and thinks they did what most of the FAQs on such matters warn against, they seem to have put in cheap hose meant for windshield wiper fluid to travel in, and I seem to have found the problem is the hoses. Now on that same topic, checking on the hoses, I found that most of them were split where the hoses attach to the nips and upon some closer inspection, some of them actually came off and I couldn't get them fixed on the spot, so any helpful hints are appreciated.... I have a 1000 Mile roadtrip coming up and my car needs to be in good shape to do it (it will be fully loaded, so the boost would be nice to help with the load up some of the mountain passes). I am going to rehose the blue hoses on my car tomorrow if I can get the hose for reasonably cheap. I hope to hear something soon.

Hi, Hooty.

Take the hose to a decent car parts shop, and ask for some rubber vacuum hose in that size. If they suggest windscreen washer hose, leave. The rubber hose might only last a couple of years, but it's cheap and should be OK for your 1000-mile journey. Let's face it, it was good enough for Saab. Taking the "Y"-piece into the shop might be a good idea, as it's easy to get off and you can try some hose on it for a good fit. I found 10 feet was more than enough, but I didn't need to go under the dash and do the piece to the vacuum gauge.

I think in "American", a suitable size is 1/8" internal diameter (about 2.5-3mm), but I'm not sure. You obviously need it to fit tightly.

I have been using some thin braided hose on my Aero for some time now. It wasn't specifically vacuum hose, but the guy in the shop knows what he's talking about and reckoned this would do (it has very thick walls), since he had run out of the proper stuff. The same guy has also sold me the proper stuff since then for another 9000 and I'll probably be going in again for some more for a third in the near future.

Well, good news and bad news on the 86,good news is, well, there isn't much good news, only that I was able to replace some of the hoses fairly easily. Bad news, well, most of the hoses up in the dashboard are cracked with age and pretty much useless. Then the hardwire that the shop ran from the fan switch that is making sure the fan runs after the car is off to cool it down inadvertantly drained my battery yesterday because almost all of my driving was short 1 or two miles only, so I had to take it to the shop and have it charged. Oh well, I leave tomorrow for a 1000 miles in one day, so I guess I will talk to you all later and let you know how the trip went.