Relocating your XJ’s vacuum canister

If you look up behind the passenger-side of your XJ’s front bumper, you’ll see a black canister bolted to the bumper. It’s a vacuum canister that’s used to run the cruise control and ventilation system. Some aftermarket bumpers have provisions for remounting this canister, and some don’t. My original bumper from Custom4x4Fabrications was setup to hold the canister, but when I put on their new TrailBlazer bumper there was no place to put it. I’ve talked to some guys who said they remounted their vacuum canisters under the hood, but I couldn’t really find a good spot big enough for it (you know how cramped it can be under the hood of an XJ) so I had to look for another place. I also figured it would be easier to reroute the vacuum line if the canister was still up front.

A little bit of looking and I found a spot on the back side of the front crossmember next to the steering box. My steering box brace was slightly in the way, but I was able to get the canister slipped in and lined up with one of the existing holes in the crossmember. So far only using one of the canister’s two mounting screws hasn’t caused an issue.

To get the original vacuum hardline reconnected to the canister, I picked up two feet of 1/4″ ID rubber fuel line from the local AutoZone. The fuel line plugged onto the canister and the end of the hardline perfectly and doesn’t appear to be leaking. That’s pretty much it, hope this has helped out.

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