'murica problems

More specifically burban driveability issues...

Brand new SBC, brand new edelbrock 1406 carb (stock electric choke), manual trans.

I do not have a cold or hot start issue, choke works fine. The choke is very simple, connect positive wire to key on position and hook ground wire nearby.

Choke works fine starting it at 7am (kinda pisses the neighbors off though I bet) and while driving around its good, then sometimes you come to a light (put it in neutral) the choke wants to kick in while driving (usually after moderate throttle too) so you are sitting at the stop light, engine is at operating temperature idle speed creeps to 1500.Or you notice the vehicle cruising along when your foot is off the gas.

I noticed this the last 2 days while driving around in our cold Michigan weather. The idle speed screw is adjusted properly, there is no binding on the throttle cable, the throttle lever is at its rest position when this occurs.

to get the idle to return to normal you have to rev it to about 3500 rpm with a good ammount of throttle and it will return to normal 750rpm idle speed.

I leaned out the choke a bit and it seemed to help but it still does it! I can't believe that a brand new carb can have a bad choke already....

first off I have no real answer for you... that said .. switch out the electric choke for a manual one .....?

If not a mechanical one, what about a simple on/off switch for the electric one.

If it's what I think it is, isn't there a round black cylinder on the side of the choke mechanism? What does this do?

wbjones wrote: first off I have no real answer for you... that said .. switch out the electric choke for a manual one .....?

I spent the extra 20 dollars to have this luxury choke, I'd rather not go back to manual and I'm not sure how to revert this one back. Unless I can return it and get the manual choke but we shall see.

It is a simple on/off electric one.

You can adjust your choke mixture rich/lean by twisting the black cap/cylinder on the choke counterclockwise/clockwise.

**EDIT: I don't think my idea will work after reading Streetwiseguy's comments.

1. Make sure you have power and ground to the choke coil.

2. Check for electrical continuity through the heating element.

3. Adjust it so the choke flap just closes when the engine is cold.

4. If it warms up and opens ok at idle, then shuts again when you go driving in the cold, you need to either route a heater hose up beside it, like Ford did in the 70's, or put a cast iron intake manifold with a heat riser, or a closed air cleaner with a hot air pickup, or move farther south, or park it for the winter...or revert to manual choke.

In reply to RossD:

Hell, my electric fan barely turns on in this weather. it has the heavy duty radiator.

I could try and do some heater hose routing...

I have the power feed about 12" of wiring to the ign pins on the distributor. I even unplugged the choke (power and ground) when it was doing this and it still continued to do so. Drove around with it unplugged (engine at operating temp) and it would still do it intermittently and just as often as it would when it was plugged in.

Some of those chokes benefit from running a heater hose right next to it, actually touching the black housing, to keep the choke hot. You might also have an icing problem if the intake air is not heated, that's the reason for the olde skool 'stoves' on the intake snorkel.

EDIT: Streetwise already covered all this very well.

In reply to Curmudgeon:

Yeah my engine is too efficent, big engine bay for a little SBC, heavy duty radiator, electric fan, tubular headers, edelbrock performer intake manifold/carb, serp belt swap.

It is equipped (now) with the pinnacle of late 80s technology.

I'm not sure on the icing problem, the rx7 tends to it around ice racing season, the intake manifold is soo cold after running it you can burn yourself like spraying a can of duster upsidedown.

Anywhoo the truck has a 195 degree thermostat to help keep it warm. E-fan is hooked up to a thermoswitch on at 210 then off at 190 degrees.

fidelity101 wrote: In reply to RossD: I have the power feed about 12" of wiring to the ign pins on the distributor. I even unplugged the choke (power and ground) when it was doing this and it still continued to do so. Drove around with it unplugged (engine at operating temp) and it would still do it intermittently and just as often as it would when it was plugged in.

None of this seems right. The electrical portion of the choke coil is only a heating element, which heats the bimetal strip that actually closes the choke when its cold, and unwinds as it warms to open the choke. When the idle hangs up, is the choke plate closed? Is the fast idle cam the thing actually holding the throttle open? I think you need to look closer.

Also: It should not be connected into the ignition circuit, as it will draw power that you want to use for your ignition.

I'll have to pop off the air cleaner when it happens next. (on my way home today)

Im with streetwise on this one, it doesn't really make sense.

The black thing that the power wire goes to is not REALLY a temperature switch, it's more like a timer switch. It will take a certain amount of time for a certain amount of current to heat it up until it's all the way open. Ambient heat is not how it primarily works.

I'll be interested to hear if that is what's actually holding your throttle open.

In reply to Vigo:

No, I agree with him too. This doesn't make sense. I'll inspect the fast idle cam.

If you hooked it up to B+ it would never turn the choke closed since the coil would always be heated. Further more if you removed ground and power from coil and concern is still present something else is at fault.

In reply to fidelity101:

With that title, I didn't pay attention to this thread earlier.

There is a second screw for setting fast idle on the Ed carbs. If you look at the throttle arm from the front of the carb, look at the bottom of the arm. There's a flat head screw there for setting the fast idle speed. Back it off a little. To get to it with the carb installed you'll need to hold the throttle open and use a small but long screwdriver to get to it.

Also check to make sure none of the choke linkage is getting bound up on the base of the air cleaner. I've seen that more than once.

Don't mess with the electric choke setting if you don't have to. They are usually close out of the box. And if you do adjust it, just loosen up the retaining screws a little. If you take them out the cover will pop off and the bimetallic clock spring will pop out. They are annoying to put back together properly.

my Camaro does this when it's somewhat chilly out, but only until the intake manifold gets nice and heat soaked.. it's one of the things i hate about electric chokes and intake manifolds that don't have an exhaust heat crossover.

So I'm a dumbass.

I noticed it started doing it at low-medium throttle speeds and inbetween shifts/push clutch in the rpms would climb or hang. So I replicate the concern just as I pull into my parking space at work, pop the air cleaner off the choke is fully open, as it should be but I noticed that one of my throttle return springs had popped off causing the issue...