Not necessarily a corvette question.. But my 79 vette has an electric choke holley carb on it, and i went to crank it up when it was cold and it had previously frosted overnight.
it gave me some trouble starting up, and once it did, it did its normal fast idle. as the engine warmed a little, i went to knock the choke off by pressing the gas peddle a little and letting off, but when i did the choke did not come off. i tried multiple times to get the choke to knock off and bring the idle back down, but it refused.
when i put the car into drive, it took off on me and without me giving it any throttle, it drove at a much quicker pace than what it should when you let off the gas pedal.
it was going so fast it actually changed gears twice.

eventually it stopped fast idling and it didnt drive itself anymore.

i have NO IDEA why that happened, but it was kinda scary as i almost hit another parked car when i put the vette into drive.
my carburetor is brand new, i feel like i shouldnt have this problem..

what could the problem be? cold weather?
it hasnt even been driven enough with the new carb to be dirty.

 

sounds normal if it was colder than you are use to.
You need to visually watch choke to verify it is working.
Adjustment will help the time it takes to release high idle.

 

You have NO IDEA , because you haven't a clue how a electric choke works.
it doesn't work as per how warm your engine is. And has no way of knowing how warm or cold the engine is. It works by warming up A bimetal coil. If that coil was extra cold. It'll take longer for it to warm up. The electric choke doesn't know or care if the carburetor is dirty or clean or jetted correctly. All it knows is when it gets 12V. It starts to warm up. As it warms up it slowly pulls the choke open
I loved my Holley, but hated the electric choke. No matter what, you can not get it adjusted properly for all weather conditions. Just the way it is. It stays on to long, or not long enough.
I fixed mine for good. Installed EFI.

 

Well, I would rather keep the carburetor as it feels more genuine on an older car such as mine..
I could always get a manual choke... or no choke at all.
I just dont know much about carburetors in general.
I know the electric chokes use heat to determine how the choke should be set.
this was out of the blue for me, as it normally let's me knock the choke off, but this time it didn't let me.

 

Classic car with carburetors and electric chokes can take a few minutes to fully warm up and return to normal idle.
The colder it is, the longer you’ll wait for the idle to come down.
Totally different than a more modern car with efi.

 

I am a big fan of manual chokes.

 

Who installed the carb? I ask just to know a little about your skill set. Most Holeys have one wire going to the choke, using a multimeter turn the key to on and check that you have 12+ volts at that connection. If not then that's your issue, an electric holey choke will eventually warm up and open from ambient engine heat, especially when its not the dead of winter cold. That might explain why yours eventually opened and reduced idle some. My car did not even have a wire to the choke and it would eventually open enough to reduce idle, first thing I fixed. If the wire is hot then find the three philps screws holding the choke housing on, you will also see some hash marks on the top, loosen the screws a tad, rotating the housing clockwise will cause the choke to open sooner. Use the hash marks to keep track of where you moved it and what happened.

I agree with you about keeping a vintage car....vintage. Personally, if I want modern EFI I would get a modern car to go with it. A properly tuned Holey will work just fine, and the electric chokes work perfectly once they are set properly. I live in NJ where its 90s in the summer and in the teens during winter..Mine has no issues either time... good luck

60

 

If you dont have a multimeter. Assuming the choke wire was set to run 12v when the key is on, remove the air cleaner and turn the key on with a cold engine. No need to start the engine and just watch the choke open completely. It should take about 2-3 minutes as the choke coil heats up provided it is geting 12v.

 

I too, have a Holley & Elec choke. Works fine.

You may have 12V at the choke, but if the unit is not grounded, then issues arise.
Should be a small black wire that connects to one of choke housing screws.

I have had both the hot wire & GRD wire vibrate loose over the yrs. If the GRD comes loose, not that big of deal.
But if the hot wire touches anything around that area, it will pop the fuse under the dash.

You may want to spray a carb cleaner around the choke linkage area. Then follow-up with some good ol' WD40.

 

If you don't have a multimeter, get a multimeter.

I'm really curious to see the result of this test. The choke should open with the ignition ON, and a blip of the throttle should disengage the high-idle cam. OP, can you post some photos? The 79 never had an electric choke. How was the circuit added?