Manual Choke Cable

[78Suburban]

My edelbrock 600 cfm performer has had a difficult enguaging and disenguaging the choke for quite some time. Even when I had it on my old '66. I usually can pull the choke closed, but somtime have to push on the choke a little, then jump out and pull it open the rest of the way by hand. I think my choke cable has a bend inside of it somewhere. Have many of you had this problem? any tips on how to keep this from happening? should I get a new choke cable? I'm just wanting to get everything in perfect order before I try to start the turd again, now that I've rebuild my carb.
Here's the cable I have now:
http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=SUM%2DG1300&N=115&autoview=sku

thanks,
James

 

[goldwing2000]

I'd say the cable is either kinked, rusted or maladjusted.

 

[78Suburban]

I'd say the cable is either kinked.

I'm pretty sure this is the problem, just checking to see if its a common problem, or if I can do something different to remedy it. There is alot of eccess cable, what if I cut the cable to a shorter length, and bent a new S shaped kink in the end? Or do auto parts stores carry a shorter, less apt to kink version?
thanks,
James

 

[goldwing2000]

Yep. You can cut it. Just make sure you don't cut the inner cable and the sleeve to the same length.

Measure how much stick-out is has now, pull the inner cable out, cut the sleeve to desired length, put the inner back in and then cut it to the same stick-out that you measured before.

Be sure to allow for engine movement, too.

 

[wildmouse216]

I didn't think manual choke cables ever worked the way you wanted them to.

 

[Hogback Fabrication]

I didn't think manual choke cables ever worked the way you wanted them to.

Agreed. I run manual choke linkage and am so tired of messing with it that I just leave the choke wide open all the time. I will be going to EFI sometime this summer.

 

[78Suburban]

Agreed. I run manual choke linkage and am so tired of messing with it that I just leave the choke wide open all the time. I will be going to EFI sometime this summer.

maybe it has something to do with altitude and humidity, but I don't think I know of a gas engine In can make run without using a choke. Maybe I haven't developed the feel for freathering the gas and cranking the motor. But I am pretty PO'ed with my choke cable, if I can get her to start without the choke closed , I'll just run it that way.

 

[hack500]

hmm, ever sprayed the choke cable with some kinda lube('specially by the knob)? I have the same choke cable and I used some anti-rust spray called Slide and it works nice and smoooooooth.

 

[78Suburban]

hmm, ever sprayed the choke cable with some kinda lube('specially by the knob)? I have the same choke cable and I used some anti-rust spray called Slide and it works nice and smoooooooth.

I'm still thinking I *may* have a kink in it, but this is an awsome idea.. I thin I'll get a little plastic tube and stick it on the end of a can of PB blaster, and FLOOD the cable with it.. maybe this will loosen her up

 

[Hogback Fabrication]

For a while I had the choke working pretty well but it has really been a huge pain in the last few months so I quit using it (after messing with it a half dozen times). The truck will fire up after about 1/2 second of cranking even in sub freezing temps and I just have to hold the idle above 1000 for a minute or two. Then it will idle on its own just fine. After about 5 minutes it will drive like its completely warm. It works for me, no guarantee for anyone else

 

[norville]

I hated manual chokes I ended up going electric and it solved all my problems. However, some tricks I've learned make sure the cable has nice sweeping turns and curves. And second I would adjust the cable so It knob (push to run) had about a 1/4" extra room to go in so I could bounce it a little. With my palm. To make sure th buterfly was all the way open.

Or on my jeep I had it set to pull to run push to choke.

Make sure your butterfly isn't sticking causing the problems.

good luck
bob