I've got an S4 13B installed in a 1982. It's been running for 2 months now and I still haven't been able to get the auxiliary ports to work.

Symptoms and diagnosis:
When going past 4k rpm it stumbles a little but can keep going with less momentum. In addition to the grease test, I've also cut a small piece of vac hose lengthwise and placed it on the rod, if the rod moves it should scoot the piece up a little. Failed both tests. The actuators do work, I tested them while they were off the car and puffed till my cheeks were blue, and in the car with a bike pump I activated them from the hose off the split air pipe.

From the manifold back is all the old 12A components, only upgrade being a Bonez high-flow cat. So my main questions are does anyone else have a 12A cat to work the aux ports and is maybe that cat too free flowing to provide any back pressure?

 

It only takes a few psi to operate the actuators. On my FC, I tapped a 3/8" brass tee fitting into the header then an 8-12" piece of 1/8" copper tubing to the vac hose to the actuators. All of this can be found in any plumbing dept. at a good hardware or home center store. Your actuators should open around 3800 rpm if plumbed correctly.

 

4-6 PSI with low volume - it's not a vented system, so as long as you internal rubber seals and gaskets on the manifold are good, they should operate smoothly.

Also, putting tubing on the shafts isn't a good way to tell if they're moving, since they could impede the movement through friction.

Try oil or grease, instead. Good luck,