vaccum lines

Well I'm getting my truck ready to z the frame, and cleaning up the engine bay. I'm pulling the ac and heat, for one I don't use either of them much, and I'm going to throw in an EDC.

But back on topic, there are a couple of vaccum lines that run from the heater core over to the passenger fender, to the ball looking shinnanigans. The tubes run around the whole engine to different things. What should I leave and what can I disconnect?

btw, I have a 98 Ford Ranger 4 cyl.

trace them see were they go. pretty sure u dont need any of them

I have a 99 maz with a 3.0 and I tried to lose some of the vacume lines and the truck didnt idle right, so I would keep them!

the ball thing your talking about is a vaccum storage for things like when the car is off and u wanna change from deforst to vent and things like that. trace vaccum likes and see if they go anywwhere else important and if so just take off the heater one and block it off. but i dont think anything else will need the ball except the heater pretty much

i have a 99 with a 2.5 and i had a 93 mazda and an 87 so i know a thing or two about vaccuum lines. here is the most scientific way to see if you need them. 1) start truck 2) unplug vaccuum line 3)if truck sputers and has trouble running you should then place a thumb over the line 4) if once plugged it runs normal again you should cap that line 5)if runs normal when unplugged you do not need it. also you can trace some of them that need vaccuum and connect with other things that need vaccuum to inturn get rid of a lot of clutter. oh and i took my ball out and re routed one of the lines to the intake manifold somewhere. hope that helps.