Stove pipe to electric choke help?

[dezmond]

Hey Everyone,

Been working on a rehab on my Capri 1750 Bow rider. Going to start soon tearing into the engine to clean things up and have it ready for install before spring. I have a question. Is there any benefit to changing the choke to electric on the carb? I at times have trouble getting it started when first going out. Last time it flooded and took over an hour to get it running. Then on the way back in, when we were in the channel it decided to quit and would not start back up again. Had spark as it would fire but I think too much gas?? I had thought about changing it to electric choke but wasn't sure. We rebuilt the carb last year as well as the fuel pump. It is a older unit (as you can see S/N in my signature) but it is a good engine and drive.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dezi

 

[thumpar]

It sounds like more than just a choke issue. I would go over the rebuild procedures again. Did you fully clean everything out during the rebuild?

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,..... If both are workin', Properly,......

There's no advantages of an electrically heated choke, vs: a choke stove choke,......

I agree with thumper,..... you've probably got other problems with the carb,.....

 

[GA_Boater]

I can relate to your problem because it happened to me. Not a boat, but in one of my trucks in rush hour traffic in the middle of a 4 lane freeway in Houston. I was lucky since it only took a little over 5 minutes to open the air cleaner and jam the choke open while enduring honking horns, words I couldn't repeat in front of my mother and countless IQ indicators. :facepalm: Fortunately traffic was typical morning Houston traffic, virtually stopped with intermittent creeping.

Eliminate the choke by popping off the flame arrestor when the motor dies and look. A warm motor should have a completely open choke plate.

In my case, the bimetallic spring for the electric choke broke, so the plate flopped around on it's own. Brand new carb, too. The difference between electric and stovepipe chokes is the heat source - An electric heater or engine heat.

 

[dezmond]

We did a very thorough clean when we tore the carb apart. A new carb rebuild kit as well. I will tear it apart again and check it over. Thanks guys

 

[kenny nunez]

If you add an electric choke do not use the + side of the coil for voltage for the choke. You need a separate 12V source from the ignition switch. Another source of an engine stopping at slow or coming off plane is the rotor in the distributor. When they get hot they will transmit the spark to the rotor shaft. Heat builds in the engine compartment at slow speed. Mercruiser has a rotor with the blade slightly longer which allows the spark a closer distance to the cap terminals. If you are still using points convert it to a Petronics kit.

 

[Lou C]

Before changing anything you should observe the choke action. Cold engine it should close or close nearly all the way. When the engine starts it should open a fraction of an inch (vacuum operated linkage pulls it open to allow enough air to keep the engine running). Then as the engine warms up it should open all the way. If there is a stove pipe to feed warm air from the manifold, make sure that there are no holes rotted in it allowing cool air to get sucked in. Many years ago we had a 1970 Ford Torino with an Autolite 2100 2bbl carb. The choke would never open up. Tried replacing choke coil spring, same result. Studied how it is supposed to work, vacuum pulls hot air through a stove pipe connected to the exhaust manifold. As it turned out there was a vacuum leak on the shaft going through the choke housing (found this by squirting oil on the shaft) and that allowed cold air in. Fixed this by installing a fiber washer on each side of the shaft. That is what fixed the choke!

 

[dezmond]

I will check out the operation when I fire it up. Thanks for the tips