[Fragzem]

Anyone ever had to drive 20 miles in a ton of traffic with two feet? And if you pushed the right foot too hard the car would stall anyway? One hell of a night... It's this full moon, I swear.

Anyway...

I've got a 1985 Monte Carlo with a 1975 Chevy 350 and on top of that, a 1985 4bbl Quadrajet.

I've been using the car without the electric choke hooked up and it's worked fine.... started and I warmed it myself.... if it wasn't really hot the next time I'd have to open the choke myself then start it....

I got tired of that..... yesterday set the choke up to work properly... as proper as I could.. I ran a wire from the electric choke to the BAT on the distributor cap.. Today and yesterday the car ran beautiful, better than it ever has before.. Tonight.... the choke isn't working anymore, and I had to do those 20 miles of two-footing. 10 towards where I was going and 10 back home.

What can I do about this? I have a 1962 (i believe) Impalla 327 4bbl carb in the garage, but it's a hot-air choke and my grandfather says it'll never work because the intake isn't set up for it.. (Intake is not original 1975... that was a 2bbl... i got a free aluminum one from a bone yard that was closing, have no clue what year)

What would I be able to do here? At this point making it a manual choke, as hard as the holes in the firewall and mounting on the dashboard sounds, I'm ready to do it. Thanks for any help guys.

All emissions junk is gone... computer is gone. Most of the wiring harness is gone. A/C is gone. Air filter.... if I don't find where I dropped the wing nut.. will be gone too.

-Pete

[Frisco]

The 'Hot' wire to the choke should come from the ignition switch. Wire it so that it is only 'ON' when the ignition switch is turned on.

If you have an HEI type distributor and wired it to the 'BAT' terminal you should have been OK.

If you have a points style distributor the wire would go to the (-) side on the coil and will not be a full 12 volts and thus will not work.

Be sure you have a good ground connection from the (-) terminal on the electric choke.

A manual choke conversion is a simple option.

[gpeak]

I hate electric chokes. Seems like i always have to adjust them from day to day. Weird! Do you know if when it's cold the choke is opening? Pull the breather off and see. If it is. It probably needs to be adjusted.

[79transam]

Electric chokes are junk. Half the time they work okay and then they will get pissy and never work right after that. Go manual and you will never have a problem. Take off the electric choke and get a manual conversion kit at napa or advance auto parts. Comes with blockoff, linkage and cable. Costs you ten bucks. You'll be glad you did.

[MI2600]

I read somewhere that you shouldn't run the choke off the distributor.
I tapped into a 12v switched lead going to the oil sending unit. Any switched source will work.

What you described sounded more like a mechanical problem rather than an electrical one. I'd suggest you observe the choke operation with the air cleaner off. It may need some TLC.

[Fragzem]

Yes... I was watching the choke yesterday with the cleaner off...

It slowly but surely opened all the way up and car ran fine all day yesterday... and even this morning.

It wasn't till tonight it messed up, and I did look again and it's not opening. It is a HEI distrib and wired as said... I don't think that's too bad of an idea.. but... I think I'll just have to get rid of this idea of electonics on this engine anyway.

Does anybody have any input about that 62 Impala QJet carb I have? Can I make the hot air choke work, or not worth the hassle anyway, just go manual?

thanks again guys, you're always brilliant on here...

-Pete

[Jmark]

Its possible that the coil in the choke housing has gone south. Sometimes the heating element goes out and a new choke cover is in order.

Back when I had a crappy Edelbrock 600 on it, I had the electric choke hooked to the "batt" wire on the HEI dist too, it worked fine for 9+ years. My sons 400 also has the choke going to the dist and has had no problems either.

I"ve used all 3 of the different style qjet carb chokes and have found the electric to be the most reliable and easy to set.

The "hot air" choke is inbetween the divorced style and the electric. If you get the correct manifold and plumbing, you can use it. If it were me, i'd make sure that I did in fact have 12v to the coil and that it was grounded on the other side. If it was found to be bad, i'd replace the cover.

I have a divorced style choke now and am going to buy a diff carb and go electric. I built one for my sons truck and it was fantastic, not to mention, easy to adjust.

One problem with the hot air choke is they can cause the carb to run very hot since they draw super heated air into the carb through the air passage. And if the intake crossover gets plugged, the choke will never open as it never gets any heat.

[lust4speed]

Good news is that it did work for awhile, so you basic setup is good. Since your car is still running, you haven't blown any fuse going to the distributor. This leaves only the supply wire between the distributor and the choke, the ground wire, or the heating element itself. With the engine running, check for voltage to the hot lead side of the coil. You should have good voltage at this terminal. If you do, then check the ground side of the choke. If you still have voltage at this terminal, then your ground wire is bad - either broken or not connected well enough. If you have voltage going in to the element, and no voltage reading at the ground terminal, then you can figure that the heating element gave up. The easiest fix would be to replace it with a new heating coil, the cheapest would be to just take another one off a used carb.

[87442lover]

My 84 and both 87 cutlass Ihad all came with a heat pipe that lead into the side of the intake. Never had a problem with the choke.

[hugo`]

Take your choke off and shake it. If it rattles, throw it in the garbage, this is because I've been through several of them, replaced many for other people and the ones that rattle don't work, I got curious and took one apart one time and the rattling comes from the conductor inside that looks ceramic and sometimes for whatever reason they shatter.

Henry

[Jag Daddy]

You never mentioned the outside temp, maybe the heating element is weak and in cold air cannot supply enough heat for the bi-metal in the choke to do it's job. Also make sure there is no air leaks from the air cleaner blowing down on the choke.

Regards
Mark

[jimfulco]

A friend of mine had one like that & he muldooned it with a clothespin until he could get it fixed. Who's idea was the pop-rivets on the choke coil?