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Could someone send me a picture of what their mechanical choke looks like on a 68-72 BB. I just ordered one and it appears that it operates reversely to what it should.
The thermostatic or coil looking chokes are hard to find and hard to get the right one. You can easily order or be given a coil that pulls down when you need one that pushes up or vice versa. Lars had me check Year One under camaro parts to find the right one I was looking for on my Qjet.
The thing is, I bought it from one of the big corvette parts companies. And it was specifically listed as the one that is used on 69 427s with the Qjet.
When rebuilding my 69 SB, I replaced the original thermal choke with a new thermal choke. When the new one arrived, it had been so long since I had removed the old one that I couldn't remember exactly how it had came off. I had to play around with the new choke for a while before I got it right. At one point, I did have it on backwards. As I recall, I heated the coil briefly with a match, off the car, to observe the way it contracted. Finally got it right. It seems to me as though I had a linkage on incorrectly as well.
There seems to be only one way to put the choke on, the manifold is keyed one way. I checked the motion of the coild under heat and it moves down, which on my carb is full choke. I tried wrapping the spring around a half a turn to make the eyelet be on the right side so the motion was correct, but it was then too tightly wound to move under hot or cold.
Familiar story. Docrebuild has a very nice diagram on his website that shows one spring winding closkwise, the other counterclockwise. Unfortunately, before I saw his diagram I ordered a choke spring from Paragon for my 68 bigblock. They sent me the wrong one. But it came in an Echlin box (Paragon part # sticker slapped on the box). I went to my local Napa store and the parts guy (an experienced, knowledgeable older parts guy) looked it up in his catalog and gave me the right choke spring. It was of course a couple of bucks less than the vette specialty shop.
Did yours come in an Echlin box? I don't have the part # handy, but I recommend Napa!
No luck! It was about 4 yrs ago but it really is annoying that I didn't write it down somewhere. Since my carb is an Edelbrock Qjet I tried the Edelbrock choke spring kit. That didn't work because it is designed to fit the Edelbrock manifold.
I may stop by Napa later this week and see if we can recreate history.
The one I got from Paragon was cheaply made, so I actually pulled the spring out and flipped it, it nows moves in the right direction and it keeps the carb choked when its cold and it opens to full when its hot. So for now I'm going to leave it until Paragon gets back to me or I find that it really doesnt function correctly.
stopped by napa today. the old Echlin choke thermostats have been discontinued. The old part is 2-288. However, Standard supposedly still makes them, and I tried to order 1 of each just to see what they look like.
I still have a hard time envisioning 2 origianl Qjet carbs; one you move the choke rod UP to open the choke, while the other you pull the choke rod DOWN to open the choke.
one more thing, apologies to Paragon. They may have sent me the correct choke thermostat spring for a 68 4sp bigblock L-36. The correct carb# is 7028219. The carb that was on my car when I bought it was 7028218. This carb has a choke that is closed when it is pulled down, and open when it is pushed up, so it needs a spring that pushes UP when hot, and pulls down when it is cold. I guess the "correct' carb has a choke that works in the opposite direction.