Testing the Truck

Today I took a good look at my truck and after reading my 69' Service manual I decided to take a look at my air filter. If you can see in the photos it's a bit different it's equipped with a heat stove to make sure all air coming in is above 100 degrees F. It is run by vacuum a thermostat decides to let vacuum through or not depending on temperature. It should let vacuum through at this temperature but would not, so to get past this I bypassed the sensor and hooked it straight to the vacuum motor. Lo and Behold it opened correctly but shortly after I heard an audible POP and it had closed. Looks like I need a new vacuum motor and sensor. Let's call Delco AC! they can help.... not. Anyone got any ideas what I should do? It has an exhaust leak on the left manifold, so if we replace that we can get a regular manifold getting rid of the heat stove, which would let us get a new carburetor. Time to go ponder the great ponder-able