I'm putting my T/A back together, and noticed I'm missing the bracket to mount the vacuum pump. I've heard of people just getting rid of it altogether.. And figured I might as well do that now, instead of going out and finding a bracket.

What are the pro's and con's of doing this? And what exactly do I need to do in order to get rid of it?

 

do you mean air(smog) pump??

 

I think so.

 

do you have emissions testing in your state?

 

Yeah, I meant AIR, sorry.
I live in MN, and no we don't. However I'll be moving to Iowa in about a week, but I don't think they do either..

 

the smog pump is not realy needed you can just cap off the pipe it ties in to

 

You have to cap off the air supply connection on your air intake ducting. Typically, you remove all the metal and rubber piping and the check valves, and plug the holes in the intake manfold (or headers). Your 96 may also have a vacuum connection that needs to be blocked, depending on whether it had the AIR pump recall work done on it. Finally, you will get codes (OBD-II) for the pump not being connected and for lack of air flow to the manifolds. Those codes have to be programmed out of the PCM.

Shoebox has diagrams of the system:

http://shbox.com/1/air_pump_recall.jpg

http://shbox.com/ci/AIR.jpg

The AIR system only operates for a few minutes at startup to help the cat(s) heat up faster. After that, it does nothing. There is no performance gain associated with removal, other than minor weight savings.

 

So, I know I need to cap off the tube going up to the intake elbow, but what about the other lines? There's a bunch of other vacuum tubes hanging off it, can I just leave them "hanging"? Or will I need to cap them off as well (providing I don't have the recall work done)?

 

The "tube" running to the intake elbow has nothing to do with AIR. That's the air supply line for the Opti vent system. Should connect to a blue plastic elbow in the inlet elbow. The air supply for the AIR pump comes off the air intake ducting between the filter and the MAF sensor, and is a hose aqbout 5/8" inside diameter. You need a large vacuum cap to cover the nipple on the air ducting.

The other vacuum lines for the AIR system are shown in the diagrams I linked.