Is the pair valve vacuum hose supposed to be hard?

[The Magic School Bus]

Gen 1: hose pops straight up from valve and goes along the right side of engine up to throttle body. Mine was so hard and brittle it just broke when I tried to move it. I don't want to do the delete right now so I was planning on replacing it with a universal rubber vacuum hose this is assuming that this front section of the hose was never supposed to be hardened. There is a thought in my mind that maybe the front side is reinforced or something to stiffen it thereby keeping it rigid enough to not contact the crankcase or the metal pair system tubes.

 

[Berlin Germany]

i put the 2nd air (we call it spider here) completely, incl. all hoses outa my gen1 and clogged the short round conn at the air box.
ready.

 

[GIXERHP]

Here is where to put it!

The Trash

 

[Berlin Germany]

(...)
The Trash

what do you mean man?

my post
or the spider itself? - looooool -

 

[The Magic School Bus]

lol yeah I ordered block off plates probably less than an hour after posting this haha especially because in order to get my hand to that valve I had to remove everything but the kitchen sink. Now I'm waiting on those to get here and my list just grew by an exhaust leak and possible radiator leak

 

[rubbersidedown]

what do you mean man?

my post
or the spider itself? - looooool -

He means the pair (spider) Its all good Frank.

lol yeah I ordered block off plates probably less than an hour after posting this haha especially because in order to get my hand to that valve I had to remove everything but the kitchen sink. Now I'm waiting on those to get here and my list just grew by an exhaust leak and possible radiator leak

The hose just got hard from age.
When I did my first block-off mod back around 20 yrs ago I used cut-to-fit beer can ally.
I whacked the metal lines off close and slid a piece of beer can under to block the hole.I dont know if fancy plates were invented yet.

A few guys made their own plates...

The other thing that was being done was the famous "Marble Mod" where you took to the right sized marble (or similar,bolt,whatever) and plugged the hose to the airbox leaving the pair attached. But for the couple pounds the thing weighs,better to just lose it. Plugging the hole in the airbox is a good idea as mentioned by Mr.Berlin.

I'm guessing you need new exhaust header donuts after removal? That's par for the course usually.Or is it now leaking at the mid attachment point? What happened to the rad? Bump it with a tool? That will be a pricey fix...
Rubb.