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There are thinner and thicker just for this very problem and other applications. Just the one thinner gasket will work.
Don't forget to use the choke pull-off. I'm assuming it won't need an adjustment seeing it's been on the truck for some time.
They're adjusted by squeezing/or stretching the "S" type bend in it. I'd bet you're adjusted fine.
Decisions decisions.... so, I took the electric choke apart fully, I have a wire coat hanger, but it is a little too thin and I think the lock washer on the electric choke rod would not hold it. I do have the old longer rod from the divorced choke, the quickest option would be to simply cut and bend that to fit. But, it means the divorced choke is then useless, not a big deal, if the electric choke works, I have no use for it.
Other option, is to put the electric choke back together and swap to a thinner gasket.
I am tempted to at least initially, try to bend the old longer rod and use that. When I come to rebuild the carb, I can then swap the shorter rod back in if required.
If it was me, I'd just change out the gasket. I'm guessing you'd be able to leave everything attached to the carb, fuel line and all and just raise it up enough to swap out the gaskets. Or just remove and replace linkage etc.
When i changed out my choke rod it wasn't without aggravation and trial and error. Once in a while it hangs up when I go to start it and I have to give it a little tap.
That was my concern, having to remove all the linkages and so on, if I can lift it enough to swap the gasket without taking the fuel line off (the nut on the end looks like it was chewed up) then perhaps that's the way to go.
Progress, swapped the gasket over for the thin one, I figured since it did not indicate which way was up, that it should not matter. Wow the nut on the front left of the carb was a pain to get back on, could only thread it maybe 1/8 a turn at a time until it got low enough that the wrench could swing under the bowl. Had one spring pop off, but thankfully I had taken pictures so was able to get it back on.
A quick test fit of the electric choke, rod fits nicely.
The last worry I have before putting the choke on and trying to wire it up, I think I messed something up on it when I took it apart to try and see about replacing the rod. I think it's just that the end on the inside is not catching the spring, so should be a simple fix. Took it apart again (maybe I should not have done this 1st time around, can't help it though, curiosity got the better of me to see if I could change the rod and now I know what the inside looks like) and a little plastic nub seems to slot over the spring, the rod then goes into that, the plastic had come off which caused the rod to not remain on the spring. I think it is good now, fingers crossed.
Fingers crossed.
Edit: Everything installed, just trying to figure out where to mount the black wire with the sensor on the manifold. I always thought intake manifold bolts had to be torqued and in a sequence, seems odd to remove one for the sensor. If you look here, not at the red circled piece, but the bolt just underneath, assume that would be a good spot for it once cleaned off?
Kind of hard to tell from the pics and location. I wouldn't worry at all about removing and reinstalling an intake bolt. They are torqued at 35 foot lbs. In the shop when we were under the clock and I don't think any of us torqued the intake bolts after a valve job or head gasket replacement. I'll have to go to confession but we never had an issue. How's about the bolt holding down the coil bracket?
Kind of hard to tell from the pics and location. I wouldn't worry at all about removing and reinstalling an intake bolt. They are torqued at 35 foot lbs. In the shop when we were under the clock and I don't think any of us torqued the intake bolts after a valve job or head gasket replacement. I'll have to go to confession but we never had an issue. How's about the bolt holding down the coil bracket?
That coil bolt isn't a bad idea. For now I'm trying the AC bracket bolt area, if it doesn't work there or takes too long for the choke to open I'll use an intake bolt.
Hopefully, this time tomorrow I'll post a success message!
Last edited by Abcdefghii; 04-23-2024 at 07:02 PM.
When setting the choke in the closed position the engine must be cold. It's a bit of trial and error getting it right. The tighter the choke is adjusted closed the longer it takes to open fully. You'll know if it's adjusted too loosely because during warm-up while driving the engine will hesitate on acceleration and maybe even stall out. Startups from stop will be met with a bog if it opened too soon, usually at the half temperature stage.
Your mileage will probably double from what you were getting. Good luck!!
When setting the choke in the closed position the engine must be cold.
Everything I have done so far has been with the engine completely cold, I am both excited and a little apprehensive about starting the truck later. Ideally, it starts and will idle nicely and the choke will open after a few minutes to the full open position. I actually moved the sensor this morning to the same spot that the battery is grounded to on the block, it's just to the side of the intake manifold, under the valve cover and above the exhaust manifold. Thinking it will likely warm up a little faster there than the AC mounting bracket, but will see.
Originally Posted by Kuvasz101
Your mileage will probably double from what you were getting. Good luck!!
This would be pretty awesome. I have not calculated mileage, but it has also been shocking how fast the fuel gauge went down (will be another nice bonus to hopefully have a reliable fuel gauge with the voltage limiter replaced, dropped that in yesterday morning without any trouble).
Choke is working nicely! Hopped in, pump gas pedal twice, turn key and it fired right up. Jumped out and the choke butterfly had opened some, watched it over the course of probably 2 minutes and the choke ended up here:
The only question I have left, which will explain the red circle, so after a minute or two I tapped the gas pedal to come off the high idle and at that point the idle seemed to be really low, as in felt like it was almost going to stall out low. Do I just need to dial that screw in slightly with the engine warm until the idle is smooth?
Generally the high-speed screw is just for the high-speed cam for choke only set about 1500 RPMs. 2 minutes of run time isn't enough for a warm engine to idle properly. Is there another screw that opens the throttle for idle setting?
Secondly..........after another cold start on a different day it would be a good idea to start cold and drive off normally after about 30 seconds and see if it hesitates or stalls out. If it does, you'll need to close the choke slightly. If it doesn't you're good.
The only other mechanism I see around the linkages is this:
I am not sure if that is the idle screw though, but looking at diagrams here - https://www.autozone.com/user/repair...00c15280052763 does confirm the screw I thought was the idle, is the fast idle. So, there must be an idle screw somewhere, I just don't see where. My carb does not appear to match any of those at the link above either, which is not helpful.
That circled is what was referred to as a dashpot or slow idle return. It prevents backfiring and jerking at higher speeds when releasing the throttle. You should have a screw or some adjustment on it to set the idle. The pics are ok but hard to really see the carb adjustments.
Closer looking it looks like the screw is missing from where the idle screw should be facing the dashpot. Not sure from here though
No idea if these pictures help any, I can't see anywhere a screw might go. There is an empty hole above the screw in the middle of this 1st picture, but I don't believe that has any adjustment, the one there looks like it just holds that piece onto the carb.
Perfect! The dashpot has a locking nut on it. Loosen the locking nut and the shaft should move in and out by turning which adjusts your idle speed. Idle speed should be adjusted fully warmed up.
Great. So warm it up, undo locking nut and then the shaft should move through enough to adjust the idle by pushing back against the throttle linkage to increase the idle.
Before I hopefully get this sorted out today, one hopefully, final question on this subject (haha)... if you look at my picture in post #221 above, there is a pretty large gap between the dashpot shaft and the linkage. I know in the subsequent pictures the gap is not there, but that is because I had turned, mistakenly, the high idle screw to decrease that gap. So, picture in #221 has a gap, looking at the shaft, there is not enough length to it remaining that it will reach the linkage.
Is this normal? If I leave it running for say 5 minutes, will the high idle screw drop out of the way and the linkage then move against the shaft where I can then make the minor adjustment needed to raise the idle? Or, does the high idle need to be adjusted to the point where the shaft is touching the linkage initially.
Yes the high-speed cam for the choke created the gap between the dashpot and the throttle stop for idle.
Once you first start the truck today, the choke will close and then open slightly from the choke pull-off doing it's job. Don't tap the gas yet, you don't
want to knock it off high idle until you set the high speed idle. The engine should be on high idle at around 1300-1500 rpms. You can then tap the throttle and it should idle down slightly to say 1000 rpms. Once the engine heats up and the choke is wide open, you could adjust your idle with the dashpot striking the warm idle stop. I'm guessing it should idle warm around 750 rpms.
I might have to give up and find someone who knows what they are doing.... started truck, cold, went to adjust the high idle screw and it moved a little as soon as I touched it with the screwdriver, creating the space between the dashpot and the linkage, at that point, the idle dropped drastically where I needed to adjust the dash pot as quickly as I could to prevent it shutting off. Along with adjusting that, I also found that turning the idle mix screws out about 1 full turn seemed to bring the idle up reasonably. I don't have a tach, but knew the alternator was charging low with the idle low, so adjusted it until I could read 14.7v at the battery. I almost wonder if the choke is opening too quickly, but the instructions say between 1-3 minutes in summer, while not summer here, it is reasonably warm and the truck is in the garage.
However, it does not sound quite right, putting it in gear and trying to move it shut off if I tried to give it more than the slightest bit of gas.
At this point, I can't help but think the adjustments I have made have been detrimental overall. I am not sure if I should turn the idle mix screws all the way in (clockwise) then back them out 1.5 turns, move the dashpot back about 1/8" to where it was with the gap when the high idle is in place.
In my mind, this should be simple enough, but I feel like nothing I do is having a desired outcome at this point. Sorry, that reads a little feeling sorry for myself, more than I meant it to, but it's getting to me a little. Needing to wait now until the engine is all the way cold before trying again is frustrating to say the least.
Last edited by Abcdefghii; 04-25-2024 at 09:17 AM.
Minor setback in the automotive world. You're right there, it just needs to be fine tuned. LOL
I'll send you my cell # and we'll get her purring like a kitten.
We could set it up even if the engine is warm. Cold is better but we'll be able to rpms and mixtures
A huge, cannot stress this enough, thank you to Kuvasz101, I called him earlier and he talked me through getting the idle running well with the engine warm. Went for a short test drive and while it's not perfect, it's at least driving and just needs fine tuning.
Tomorrow I'll see how it goes from a cold start, but again thank you to Kuvasz101 for the help.
Kuvasz is a guardian of the flock from Hungary. I had 2 of these loyal dogs. 101 was my call number at work. Some useless information but it's an explanation.
Have not tried a cold start yet this morning, but pulled the accelerator linkage back a little to close the choke, it only closes so far as I had mentioned yesterday, but hopefully will start just fine later today. I did remove the vacuum line from the EGR and plugged that. Trying to determine if I can remove the vacuum amplifier now, it appears there is nothing connected to it anymore, the only thing connected was the EGR. Will be nice to remove it from the engine bay and tidy it up a little.
Then, see if I can get the idle sorted out with the lights on.
Last edited by Abcdefghii; 04-26-2024 at 06:04 AM.
As far as the choke being a bit short on length there's one more hack to try. Could you place a spacer or a few washers under the base of the choke? By placing spacers under the choke base where the screws go through it may bring it up enough to close the butterfly all the way.
The dimming lights or slow idle with lights on can be corrected by turning up the idle a bit more.
I know you said the previous owner pulled a lot of stuff off the engine. Check to see that you have a vacuum advance going from the base of the carburetor to the distributor advance. With the engine on high idle or faster, by pulling the vacuum hose on and off the distributor advance it should increase and decrease the engine speed.
As far as the choke being a bit short on length there's one more hack to try. Could you place a spacer or a few washers under the base of the choke? By placing spacers under the choke base where the screws go through it may bring it up enough to close the butterfly all the way.
The front bolt is missing, strangely, I found when trying to use a new bolt (same thread as the rear) that the front is either threaded differently or not threaded at all. Regardless, I knew I had some flat bar steel laying around, 1" width by about 1/16" thick, cut 2 of those the same length as the choke foot, drilled a hole for the bolt and it raised it up nicely. It looks to be closed fully, or at the very least over 95% closed.
One bonus I noticed doing this, it appears that the linkage on the fast idle is now a little closer to the dash pot, which I believe is going to increase the curb idle slightly and potentially take care of the engine bogging down with the lights on, maybe even allowing me to actually adjust the dashpot back some.
Originally Posted by Kuvasz101
I know you said the previous owner pulled a lot of stuff off the engine. Check to see that you have a vacuum advance going from the base of the carburetor to the distributor advance. With the engine on high idle or faster, by pulling the vacuum hose on and off the distributor advance it should increase and decrease the engine speed.
Yep, that vacuum hose is still there, will see how it acts later when I try the cold start.
Do you know if the vac amplifier can be removed? I don't see it attached to anything except the bolt holding it to the valve cover.
Debating picking up a tach, but I don't really have anywhere to mount one and don't want one just sticking out on the dash somewhere. I'd also realistically only use it when setting up the carb, so likely a waste of money.
Last edited by Abcdefghii; 04-26-2024 at 09:21 AM.
I forgot, there is only one threaded hole on the manifold for the choke.
That canister can be removed. I'm saying that because it's unlikely it's serving any purpose with
some of the modifications the previous owner made.
As far as a tach, it's not a necessity I don't have one on mine. It had one but I removed it. I adjust the idle and high-speed choke setting to what works for me and sounds right.
04-23-2024, 08:07 AM
