Mystery hose on my 91 164L

[C M Smith <cmsmith@domain.elided>]

Finally, I'm posting a genuine mechanical question with 100% Alfa content, 
assuming the 164 is a "real" Alfa.

Rummaging around under the "aquarium" cover the other day I removed a 
handful of fibreglass pink insulation carefully composed of approximately 
ping pong ball sized tufts (hello mice), a very rusty 12 mm snap on socket, 
and located a vacuum hose with what looked like a black plastic sleeve 
connector (internal type clearly intended to join two vacuum hoses 
together) obviously unconnected underneath the power steering reservoir.

 Lest you be tempted to criticize, this 164 is driven 24/7/52. It has four 
Pirelli snow tires for winter and hasn't been washed in weeks due to 
freezing weather and continuous minor snowfalls. This little lovely has 
been driven year round since new and is a great daily driver (the mice??? 
puzzle me, but who else could stuff that insulation in there?)

The foreign objects cause me no particular confusion, but the unconnected 
vacuum hose has me stumped. there is no obvious "other end" to reconnect it 
to. The business end disappears through the false bulkhead and I have not 
traced it but can only assume it goes eventually to the fuel vapour 
recovery canister. Hmmmm

Any assistance most appreciated before I enlist the skilled (and expensive) 
assistance of Alessandro.

Speaking of which, my friend 'Sandro services all imports but specializes 
in Italian makes. I have seen Rolls Royce, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Alfa, SAAB 
and Peugeot in his shop as well as more mundane brands. The most unusual 
have been a Peugeot 405 Ti, which has to be one of the most desirable non 
available models, equivalent to the Alfas available in Europe, an Alfa 
2,600 spider in  mint condition, and a Ferrari F40 (like man wow, have you 
heard one of these rip through the lower three gears, stirs the soul). I 
joked with him the other day that a sure sign of winter was the Ferraris 
coming home to roost in his shop like exotic birds too tired to migrate to 
sunnier climes. The Ferrari Boxers, Testarossas, 348, 355, and so on just 
seem to nestle in his shop for the winter....ah one can dream eh?

Cheers




Michael Smith
White 1991 164L
Original owner
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