As an update, i tackled the job this last weekend in anticipation of a 2 week ride with my son coming up in July. I figured since I was in there and didn't want to be in there twice, i had a new thermostat and new radiator cap ready. I tore it apart, and replaced the thermo and the cap and removed the vacuum tube (which I am POSITIVE was the culprit as it was badly cracked and worn and even squished flat in a couple of places by the tupperware). I use ss hose clamps and a thicker walled fuel hose that should hold up better.
I used zip ties (not so tight as to squeeze the hose) to hold the hose out of the way of where the tupperware might pinch it, and I bought a hose about 2 inches longer so I wouldn't have to make such tight bends. I took pictures while taking it apart and still ended up with 4 extra little black phelps screws! I meant to leave out the two that hold the side box storage things in, but I don't know where the other two came from!
Either way, once it was reconnected I started it up, it took quite a while longer to warm up then it had prior to the repair, and once the temp gauge got to about 4/5ths of the way thru the middle temp range indicator the fan kicked on and cooled it down to about half way and then shut off and kicked back on again when it got about 3/4 of the way thru the temp range. It just stayed in that range sitting in the garage without over heating.
I put the tupperware back on and took it for a test drive. I was having trouble as soon as I hit town, especially if I had to stop at stop lights! It would over heat and start the clutch to slip by overheating the clutch fluid. It was almost 70 degrees (hot here) and it never over heated once! I ran it twice back and forth thru town (we have 3 stop lights) cuz it took me a while to hit all three stop lights and I wanted to see if it would go to the end of the middle temp range. it never did, and as soon as I got out of town it would cool all the way down to the very low end of the range.
I refer to the middle range as that area in the middle inside the white lines, with the cold and hot on either end.