Charcoal Cannister: Needed?

When I got my car it always stunk of gas and had the canister removed. Found one for free and put it back. Gas smell is gone. Just my experience

Useful thread, many thanks to those who dropped their knowledge. Does anybody know if Ford parts-binned the canister and purge valve, and used the same parts as the Mustang in other cars?

Gonna dredge this one up for a question. I noticed my 89 was missing a cap, so I ordered a new canister (along with other parts, you know how Rock Auto works). The new canister didn’t come with caps like I thought it would. I have one cap, do I need two? Seems like from reading this thread that there should be two for it to be right. Where do you get these from, no parts stores seem to have them.

General karthief said:

No, they do not come with the two caps, only place I found to get them was foxresto.com, $10 apiece. I would hit a junk er, salvage yard and look at any ford with a 5.0 push rod engine from the mid 80s to late 90s, you should be able to find them. Likely for free.

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Or the dead 4 cyl car that lives up the street and hasn’t moved in 10 years.... . I’d probably get bit by something if I tried that!

What did you end up doing? I'm installing a Terminator X and cleaning up my engine bay. All emission items are gone but still have the charcoal cannister. After reading this thread I think I'm going to just keep and relocate mine to the passenger fender area.

General karthief said:

Important note: make sure the new location is near the same height as the old location. Engineering ya know.

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lol thanks.

General karthief said:

No, they do not come with the two caps, only place I found to get them was foxresto.com, $10 apiece. I would hit a junk er, salvage yard and look at any ford with a 5.0 push rod engine from the mid 80s to late 90s, you should be able to find them. Likely for free.

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I know this is a dead thread but in case anyone else finds it: The salvage yard was my salvation for these. Lot's of dead Fords with all kinds of canister caps for the taking. I think I paid $2 for about 6 caps and the rubber distributor cover off of something else 5.0. Plus, I love going there and walking around and seeing what's there. Good thing/ too bad its a solid 30 min from my house or I'd be there more often.

If all your smog stuff is still in place, having the canister caps on the charcoal canister greatly reduces the gas smell when filling the car.