These lines do have pressure in them so the correct hose is important. Years ago now, I replaced mine with a thick walled silicone and did away with the elbows all together. My goal with my UK SPi was to eliminate any potential issues that could leave me stranded. Vacuum lines and over heated/worn out in-line fuses have been the 2 major issues on my car. My 94 does not use blade fuses so there are MANY in-line fuses and over time, they get warm and the ends start to sink into the plastic, eventually losing contact with the glass use. Whenever I can (engine being out for instance) I try to replace them with quality replacements. Not super fun but good insurance down the road.

This is all moot if your car has blade fuses. ha

I too just bought a 1996 JDM mini. It has a leaky water pump right now. I'm not driving it at the moment so I started looking around under the hood at a few things. I pulled the air filter housing off and found a red vacuum line that was crushed in two places. It goes from under the housing to a connection below the throttle body. I'm going to replace it with the 1/8 I.D. vacuum hose as previously recommended by others on this site. I counted seven elbows and one straight connector that was on top of the air filter housing.

As I found a long time ago when I had my 1963 Mini, this website is very helpful with information. Thanks. Mark

What brand of plugs did you use? I find modern Champions are useless.

AC changes things. I don't know where they relocated your ECU. I've seen them under the front seat.  There is a vacuum connection that needs to be changed.

Service manual is on the way! And yes I do have AC on this car.

After changing the plugs I pulled the air cleaner off to check the filter and just take a look underneath. Now wondering if I pulled a line out or something when I took that off. 

Yes all under the bonnet. Start at the bottom of the ECU. Look for the shiny black plastic hose. One at each end. There are some at the fire wall (fuel separator), remove  the air cleaner. Get yourself a 2000 haynes manual. Nothing inside. All located from the center to left as you are standing in front, looking down. Do you have AC?

I really appreciate the response! Gonna ask a dumb question because I am so new to these cars. Are all of the connections under the hood? I have a service manual, I just don't want to be searching under the hood for one that is hiding under the dash. thanks again!

Replace the vacuum connections, 7 of them. I use a small 1/8" inside diameter rubber hose instead of the elbows. Add a little length for a nice radius, not as clean but doesn't fail like the elbows. See my other post for the fuel filter.

I have a 1993 that was just imported from Japan. I drove it for about a week and did not have any issues. I decided to change the spark plugs this morning. The car ran fine for the first couple of miles. Seemed to run better actually. It is now missing out. Especially below 2000rpms when I am trying to take off from a stop. Sitting still I can rev the car up from an idle and it happens very rarely. I put the old plugs back in the car ( the new ones were a little different) and that did not help. Any tips on what I should look at?  I am going to get new plug wires and fuel filter but didn't know if there was something else I should be checking.