Choke coil? Where is it?

[sleepymarks]

So my truck never starts unless I fiddle with the choke. When I go out to the truck and engine is dead cold the choke plate won't close no matter what I do. I saw on the forums that you have to adjust the choke coil. Is this the choke cylinder thing itself? Sorry I'm a NEWB. If someone could show me a picture of where the coil is it would help alot. And also what I need to do to stop having to mess with this d*mn choke!!!

 

[Fordum]

Don't have a pic handy, but its the black plastic cap looking thing on the side with a wire plugged into it.
Usually three screws clamp it down.

If all the linkage is free, you can take the air cleaner off, with the engine cold, you press the throttle down, and the choke should close.
If not, you loosen the screws and turn the cap until it just closes.
That should do it.
Just be sure the ignition is not turned on and everything is cold.

There are other types, but that is the most common. I suspect someone will post a picture soon.
Or, you can take a shot of yours and we can point it out.
It should be on the opposite side from the throttle hookup.

 

[sleepymarks]

Yeah, when I turn it the plate doesn't move anywhere

 

[Fordum]

Yeah, when I turn it the plate doesn't move anywhere

Well, make sure you have depressed the throttle, the choke plate will not move until you do that.
If it still does not move, pull the plate off and make sure the spring is in the shaft.
There is a bimetallic spring under that plate. The end fits in a slot in the choke shaft.
When the spring is cold, it should be trying to turn the shaft to close the choke.
When it heats up, either from the engine or the electric wire, it twists and releases the choke.
If someone put the plate on without threading it in the slot, then the choke will never close.

 

[sleepymarks]

Figured it out. Took the housing off and looked at the coil. The coil was not reaching. So I turned the choke about a half inch farther than the lines on the housing and now the plate closes.

 

[Fordum]

That is common. As the coil ages, it loses some spring, and you have to turn it farther.
Now you need to watch and make sure it opens all the way and fairly quickly. If you have a heat tube coming from the top of the intake to the choke, make sure its connected and the little vacuum line that sucks the hot air up to the coil is hooked up.

The electric wire that may or may not be hooked to it is a faster warmup device. It uses electricity to heat the coil causing it to open faster.

 

[sleepymarks]

Thanks alot guys, and thanks fordum!

 

[Deuling]

Just a future tip. When your driving your truck and put it in park and its randomly idling at 1800 rpms, your choke coil just went to heck and your choke is now closed lol. Had it happen to me, taped the linkage so the choke was open and rigged a manual choke up till the new one came in the mail.

 

[sleepymarks]

Haha. Did the coil just unwrap or what? Did it have to much pressure? I got a spare carb I take with me so I'll be ready haha

 

[Deuling]

Well I beleive as the coil heats up it well.. "Coils up" and takes pressure off the choke linkage, when its cold it puts pressure on it and closes it. The coils eventually just go bad, you can test by hitting them with a torch and if it doesnt do anything, its toast.

 

[sleepymarks]

Good to know! Love learning so much from this forum

 

[Deuling]

No prob man!

 

[NorCal_Chris]

i never got my electric choke to work right. Would take too long to heat up when it was warm out and my truck would stall out driving down the street because the choke was still on.

i wasnt a fan lol

 

[sleepymarks]

Did you go no choke or manual?

 

[NorCal_Chris]

no choke... i need to go manual though. when my truck is cold i have to pump it 15-20 times before cranking, but then it fires right up.

But it fired up no problem up in the snow this way, was around 32 or so degress

 

[sleepymarks]

That's a beautiful truck by the way

 

[NorCal_Chris]

That's a beautiful truck by the way

That cant be directed at me

I have a 20footer looker for sure

 

[Fordum]

Back when I was running carbureted vehicles, one of the first things I did when I got one, was pull the choke cap off and throw it away.
Then I would put on a manual replacement.
Since I grew up with manual chokes, I learned early how to crank a cold engine, and I just felt I could do a better job than a spring.

Plus, it gave me the option of a fast idle anytime I wanted it. If the air conditioning was not doing a good job at idle, or if I had left the lights on and wanted to help the battery charge, I could pull the choke knob out while pressing on the accelerator so that it closed the choke and put the idle screw on the fast idle step.

Then, I could let off the gas, and push the choke knob back in. That would open the choke all the way, but the fast idle would stay on until I hit the accelerator again.

I think the kit was about $10 back then, but I would usually buy a separate choke cable along with it, because the one that came with it was so cheesy.

It was dead simple to put on, but on my pickup, I had to reverse things since the clamp on the shaft would hit the underside of the air cleaner housing.
So, I had to mount the cable lever on the other side and let the clamp come off the bottom.
Which put a fairly sharp bend in the cable which was when I discovered it needed an upgrade.