[1969XR7Vert]

Want to discuss Holley Electric Chokes a bit with the forum. Now that cooler weather is here, I am more concerned with getting fast idle and enough choke - long enough.

I found the easiest way to adjust the fast idle screw is to unscrew the choke housing. Very hard to get to otherwise. With the housing loose and flopping around, you can adjust the screw with your fingers. A couple of iterations and I have settled on about 1500 RPM fastest fast idle.

Okay, now the problem is that the electric choke (running off alternator stator voltage) comes off much too quickly. Couple iterations on that adjustment and I find I need to turn the choke spring housing a fair amount past the scale (CCW which is the rich direction) to get enough choke long enough - and the choke does not come completely off (butterfly straight up). It is open enough to be called open, but I am less than thrilled by where it ends up. So this kind of says to me too much heat too soon, if I can lessen this (which should already be less than it could be since I am running stator - less than 12V) the choke would come off more slowly for a given housing setting (like perhaps back on the scale). So I could put a power resistor inline to lower the choke voltage some more but this seems kind of hokey to have a hot resistor hanging out somewhere under the hood.

Any thoughts guys?

Regards,

Bob

 

[woodsnake]

Perhaps you could cut a "window" into your choke houseing, around the outside, so that it stays cooler longer? I've read on the interwebs that this is a good idea to help your choke live longer......I have not done it myself though, but have planned on it. I just leave my chokes disconnected, and suffer with being that cool....

 

[Bad69cat]

I'm a fan of manual chokes myself, but the resistor idea sounds plenty plausible. I actually like the manifold heat driven chokes better than electric....they seemed to match engine requirements much better. Your not really gonna drive her in the winter are ya?....

 

[xr7g428]

Bob, reconnect the vacuum line that pulls air through the choke and your problem will be fixed. Just use a short piece of rubber hose to make the loop. You can also some times find a cap with screen that will let air in with out running up to the top of the carb.

 

[1969XR7Vert]

Bob, reconnect the vacuum line that pulls air through the choke and your problem will be fixed. Just use a short piece of rubber hose to make the loop. You can also some times find a cap with screen that will let air in with out running up to the top of the carb.

Hi Bill,

Yes, I have the choke housing nipple connected to a small nipple on the baseplate, so it has manifold vacuum. And yes, I have the nut with the screen and I can feel the vacuum being drawn.

The principle here being to cool the spring with air (vacuum) being drawn across it. Have maximum air now, any more would be a vacuum leak!

I will try putting the spring housing back to the last graduation on the choke housing and see how it does.

Bad69cat (what's your name anyhow?), well, yeah, maybe, kinda, sorta. Not in bad weather mind you, but on a sunny day in the winter with dry road conditions, why not? Just figure I might as well have "maximum tweakage" on the attributes I have equipped the car with.

Maybe I have forgotten how temperamental carb'ed cars with electric chokes can be, my buddy says "no problem, buy an EFI setup", LOL. In any case "maximum tweakage" should yield a well mannered car that will start and stay running in any weather. That's what I'm tweaking towards. Pretty good now but the choke could be better. As I mentioned, comes off too soon, unless I crank it so tight that the choke butterfly doesn't come off all the way (which simply won't do!).

 

[xr7g428]

Remember also that the choke system was engineered with the stock cam in mind. You need a richer mix at idle due to the cam so you are probably outside the adjustment limits engineered into the system. For you this is not problem as I am positive that you can engineer your own solution.

One other minor point, there may be a cardboard disc in the choke housing that regulates the flow of air around the spring. this will give you another point of variability in engineering the solution. It may also be possible to change the spring out with one from a different carb. I would guess that you would measure the resistance across the spring to find the one you need.

 

[Bad69cat]

Bob - if you get her acting like an EFI car - you are miles ahead of 90% of us! LOL Evertime I think about driving in the winter I quickly remember how much salt these yahoo's dumped on the road last snow and is now turned to "rust dust"! But as an ECI you are well aquainted with that.

Bill - is that piece of cardboard in the choke housing functional in some way? I thought those were for moisture/condensate prevention -- treated with some rust preventer or something along those lines?


If you get it runnig good Bob, maybe you'll make a believer outta me!

Mike