Fuel starvation on 450 SL revisited

The other day I posted the issue I am facing with a 75 450 SL that runs fine for 10 minutes then exhibits signs of fuel starvation. It has a new fuel pump, fuel filter and a plugs, wires on and on. The tech has been telling me that the fuel tank has to come out and be cleaned. The other issue the car has is that it bangs its shifts indicating a vacuum problem or leak.

All that said, today I went to replace the small filter on the fuel line where it enters the fuel distributor and took the opportunity to look for a vacuum line problem behing the fuel distributor. What if found was a cloth braided line with a large hole going from charcoal canister to a valve on passenger side of engine.
The valve seems to be associated with the linkage that has control pressure rod, regulator lever etc as part of its deal. There seems to be a hose coming out of the bottom of the valve which disappears somewhere (possibly tranny).

Is it possible I have bumbled my way to two solutions allowing that the charcoal canister may be clogged after 26 years. Can you clean the canister or is a throw away?

Bob