Tell me about my choke....

Richard Vyse

Richard Vyse

I'm curious as to how this works on the Lifeliner. Since I've owned it if I want to save time and effort I open the hood and manually activate the choke. Seems like there is a better way to do this and it is a bit embarrassing trying to start the beast after sitting all day at a car show.

My mechanic says I should be able to hit the gas pedal once or twice to activate the choke then start her up.

Solution?
 
your mechanic was correct. so tell me why did you not follow up your question with, when can you fix this? normal culprit is the bimetal spring is rusted off and no longer pulls the choke plate closed. it could be out of adjustment or binding also. the q jet has a few things particle to just it and not being a ace mechanic I try to leave them alone. it seams to me you need to pinch the crink in the rod to adjust that one. get it to tight and it will not open all the way to loose and it will not close tight. some thing are best left to some one that has done one before. don't you have the shop manuale for you car??
 

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not correct, but

Richard,
This fix is not the correct way to fix your choke problem. But I have used it before and it works. I used it on a non judged car. Get a hand choke kit installed. Like I said, it is not correct but will work. You do have to remember to reset a hand choke. I am surprised your mechanic did not offer to fix your choke. That is one of the reasons he is in business. Unless he just does not think the time and money involved would be worth the effort.
Mike
 
If your choke isn't working properly, then there is a good chance that the rest of the carburetor is also out of adjustment, and it needs to be serviced or a complete rebuild. It is common to put that which is under the hood or out of sight to the rear burner, and to be more concerned with looks on the outside. In my opinion, this is just plain wrong. A well maintained vehicle is a safe vehicle, and a poorly maintained but shinny vehicle is a trophy hunter. I would rather make it to my destination safely, then be sitting at the side of the road admiring my trophy, waiting for the tow truck to arrive. :my2cents:
 
John Dorgan said:
Paul

What is a shinny, other than a way to climb a pole?
Click to expand...

"a simple variety of hockey, played with a ball, block of wood, or the like, and clubs curved at one end." www.dictionary.com


I didn't notice that I had put two "N's" into the word. I was typing on a lap top which I am not that familiar with, and the keyboard isn't comfortable for these old fat fingers.
At what age will they retire you from the Spelling and Punctuation Police Department??? :yankchain:
 
Auto shop high school, they taught us that the choke sets up on a cam system. When the springs is cool, it allows a linkage, via the rod to climb a stepped system style cam and determines the choke opening. Since we bought the 1969 Royale, I always have had the same approach to starting a cold carburated engine, the same way. Slowly push the pedal all the way to the floor when you first begin to start the motor, this should enable the choke, crank it and it will either start and run fast idle or idle down to what ever the cam has selected for idle speed via the design. I unfortunately, have been working through some of the same issues as well personally, because when we first purchased the coach, we could never get it to come off of fast idle easily during warm up. Our mechanic Janelle flat out said that the preheat passage under the dashpod choke device was likely plugged with debris and not allowing the choke to drop off because it was not getting hot enough to expand the spring. Now this summer no problem with it not coming off fast idle and I have decided to postpone taking the intake off to do the service.
 
If the cross over is blocked, then you risk the chance of having a failure of the intake manifold, as a result of over heating at the edge, where the exhaust gasses collect. Cracked intake manifolds are rather common on some Cadillac engines, and the earlier 1960's engines are particularly sensitive to this issue. Better to fix a problem when you first learn about it than it is to gamble that additional damage will be done if you don't fix the issue. Whenever an engine isn't functioning the way it was designed, it is working at less than its peak performance levels.
 
I know the manual choke is the cable style choke and an electric chock is electrically set. But is the thermatic choke like on our cars called and referred to as a divorced choke too?
 
Paul Steinberg said:
If your choke isn't working properly, then there is a good chance that the rest of the carburetor is also out of adjustment, and it needs to be serviced or a complete rebuild. It is common to put that which is under the hood or out of sight to the rear burner, and to be more concerned with looks on the outside. In my opinion, this is just plain wrong. A well maintained vehicle is a safe vehicle, and a poorly maintained but shinny vehicle is a trophy hunter. I would rather make it to my destination safely, then be sitting at the side of the road admiring my trophy, waiting for the tow truck to arrive. :my2cents:
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That's not what my question was and is not helpful. Personal observations of what I do with my car is my business and was asking for help with an issue.
 
John ED Renstrom said:
your mechanic was correct. so tell me why did you not follow up your question with, when can you fix this? normal culprit is the bimetal spring is rusted off and no longer pulls the choke plate closed. it could be out of adjustment or binding also. the q jet has a few things particle to just it and not being a ace mechanic I try to leave them alone. it seams to me you need to pinch the crink in the rod to adjust that one. get it to tight and it will not open all the way to loose and it will not close tight. some thing are best left to some one that has done one before. don't you have the shop manuale for you car??
Click to expand...

Worked on it a bit yesterday afternoon and it seemd to have worked. Went out this morning and tapping pedal twice it turned a few times and caught.

The advice from all posted PCS members is much appreciated.

:smileICEflag:
 
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