In a conversation about this same gizmo over on forfmjbodiesonly.com, I was told that it is a temperature controlled vacuum control gizmo....intake vacuum feeds one side, then a hose goes to the falpper door on the snorkle on original air cleaner housings.
The flapper on our 80 Volare slan6 6 wasnt working so I was looking into this.
APparantly, according to the person there, who is pretty knowledgable from what I can see, says this temp sesnor only works when its like +15 degrees F......so I pretty much quick worrying about it since that is a very very small part of the weather in my area. My son drive the car this winter and muddled through OK even with the flapper not flapping. LOL
It would be nice to get everythin gworking "correctly" but I wasnt able to find a replacement for either the sesnor OR the flapper motor...so.....just have to let it warm up longer when cold.