what does this vacuum thingy do on the 83 240D?
 

It's just hanging there as in the pic. Shouldn't it be mounted to something? If so where? It has 3 barbs but only 2 lines are connected to it. Where does the 3rd barb go?. While engine is running, pushing on the lever does not seem to do anything. If I pull one of the lines off, I can't shut the engine off.

oops forgot the pic, here it is

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...101907_001.jpg

If that curly hose goes up to the ignition switch, that is your engine shutoff line, (which you also verified by pulling it off and not being able to shut off the engine), not sure what that tee is about, looks like a piece of a windshield squirter line someone used to splice 2 hoses together and probably plugged up the 3rd nipple.

thats a 3/2 valve. as far as i know these are only supposed to be on the valve cover. used to vary pressure to the transmission. remove the valve and plug the yellowish line straight to the connector running up to the ignition.

Wow, another PO hack repair...

holycrap... thats the worst ive ever seen..

That bad ha? Is it time to junk the car? :D

Relax, can't be that bad. Without looking into this further, I am assuming the PO used the 3/2 valve as a check valve because the vac switch on the ign switch leaks? The door locks hold vacuum for a few days so maybe the 3/2 valve is doing somthing?

That, or under the hood, the PO hooked up the ignition cut off to share the locking systems vacuum connection. I did that by mistake and could not figure out why I could not get the car started. Then I remembered vacuum...ah ha!