On the TVS, can the vacuum hoses be removed from the rubber connector? I am guessing they can because the recall specifies that the one hose be looped to another port like this.

Is the connector nothing more than a block of rubber that has five female ports on one side and five male ports (or large holes for the hose to be inserted) on the other side?

I also noticed there are two styles. Any thought on the reason?

There was a 3 port TVS that negated the loop. That's what I have on mine now. As far as I see it's just a block of rubber....not sure why its needed....

Also keep in mind that there is a port at the bottom that does NOT get a vacuum line at all as it is a vent. I've seen many cars with a vacuum line attached to this vent and this is not correct.

In addition, a lot of guys install all these lines to appear to be functional, but in reality they put ball bearings in the lines to "block" them off to make them dummy lines. The reason is that these switches do not always function as they should and or do not open properly thus not allowing the correct amount of vacuum etc.

Generally speaking these things are installed for looks...

That reminds me of another question. It looks like this port is capped, not being used as a true "vent", although it appears to be labeled as such. (VT?) In the pics I have seen, it looks like the cap is a T-shaped cap. Is this true to your knowledge?

Yes, however, it is not a cap in the sense that it fits loosely. It kinda slides in and out if that makes sense. It pushes out to "vent" then sucks back in so to speak when it no longer needs to vent. I hope that makes sense...

In other words, a check valve? In this case, it sounds like it allows air flow out of the switch but not in.

Hopefully, I will be able to find a picture of that so I can replicate that too.

I've had 2 or 3 TVS over the 10 years I owned my Bird and none of them had the little vent "cap" as it was common for them to come off and become MIA. The TVS will work fine without it as mine never leaked air etc.