I must be a terrible mechanic. I've worked on cars for years, but this one's got me stumped. I was throwing P0170 and P0173 OBD codes, so I and hooked up my smoker and found a vacuum leak, the purge valve solenoid vacuum hose at the back of my 2004 ML500 had come disconnected from the intake manifold. The hose is a thermoplastic formed type 12 l2124 with a slightly raised ring near the connection end. It routes under some random hoses and gets inserted into a rubber hose-connector which connects to the rear of the intake manifold.

There's just not enough room for me to fix this. I can't re-insert the the formed hose into the rubber connector. After hours of trying, I just can't do it. I can't get that rubber piece off of the back of the intake manifold either, but if I could, I would force it on the thermoplastic hose then hopefully slip that assembly on the manifold nipple, which (I dunno) may be barbed and maybe that's why I can't get it off.

If anyone out there has done this before, I'd really appreciate a suggestion.

Well, there's progress. I went to Dollar Tree and bought a set of screwdrivers, got out my trusty Harbor Freight grinder with a thin disk, and made a narrow tool that looks kind of like a dandelion weed remover, heated up the screwdriver in my oven, and removed the handle. I attached a piece of tubing to the screwdriver, then but this thing down on the piece of rubber and pried it off. Of course, it fell down onto the top of the transmission somewhere and will never be seen again. But I think this method of attachment is pretty mickey mouse, because the brake bleeder hose has it's own fitting that clamps it into the intake manifold. Since it's a holiday weekend, I'm going to try to get that thermoplastic hose over the manifold nipple and maybe permatex it in place. I haven't been able to figure out the correct routing of that thermoplastic hose yet so that it just fits in there nicely. It may not, and this work may be in vain.

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Yes thats it