vacuum canister ... what to do with it

[grant mills]

I have had an ongoing leak at the connections of the transmission cooler lines to the radiator. No more than a few drops a month but it is annoying so I am going to replace the seals (or connectors..what ever is needed) at the rad connections. The connections are hard to access because of the vacuum canister, so I intend to disconnect the canister for ease of access. I am not comfortable with the idea of removing and bypassing the canister, and I have read numerous postings in other forums where they indicate that the canister should be recharged as it is prone to failing after about 70K miles (my car has 72K) Those forums also seem to indicate that replacement foam/parts for the canister are no longer available. So I would like some critics of the transmission cooler line work and comments on the vacuum canister.

[silverstude]

There are quite a few returns if you "Google"  1984 GM emissions canister, even new stuff.  It's very likely this is what you have onboard... 

[grant mills]

I will look for a replacement canister...but the leak turned out to be a little harder to access than I first thought. After removing the lower rad hose, I found I also had to remove the electric fan support (with fans) so that meant removing the upper rad hose so there was room to remove the fans. The tranny coolant leak was at the connection of the 45 degree adaptor to the rad. A little teflon tap and a tightening up cleared up that location and teflon tape on the hose connector to that adaptor ensured that there will be no more leaks. When putting the electric fans back in place, the battery got in the way so that also had to be removed before I could get the fans and their support frame back in place......How i wish I had small hands so I did not need to clear out a few square feet of area in order to work on things. It was 10 minutes of slow work on the connectors and 2 days of removing and replacing parts to get access.