Grrr...

mjsmith1223 · October 12, 2003

So Saturday afternoon I head outside to work on the choke. It's a Q-jet with a divorced choke setup. It wouldn't open. I take the choke thermostat off, take off the cover and put it in a warm place and observe. Sure enough, the spring is in backwards so it's pulling the choke closed rather than pushing it open. I get the spring out ok and reverse it, but when I put it back, the little metal "ears" that hold it in break off. Son of a biscuit eater! Anyway, on to plan B.

There's a manual choke kit in the glovebox. Well, I figure I can go this route until I can get another thermostat or replace the carb with an electric choke model. Get everything installed after an extreme amount of tinkering to get the geometry right. Find that by going in front of the carb I can use an ear on the thingy the divorced choke rod connects to for closing the choke. Got everything set up. Works good. When I go to tighten everything down, the nut from the choke cable clamp falls off and heads down into the deep abyss of the engine bay. It didn't come out the bottom, so it disappeared somewhere. It was the only nut I had in that size as well. Double Grr....

Just of Murphy's Law kind of day I guess.

Mike

Grand Haven, MI

46Rusting · October 12, 2003

Sounds typical of a classic. At least mine are polite enough to spit the nuts back out.... wow, that sounded odd.....

I'm still trying to track down an overheating problem in a 73 Mercury, and tinkering with the 80. The 46 is on the back burner, because of the great amount of time involved. Time which I don't have, unfortunately. Good luck with the carb issue.

mjsmith1223 · October 12, 2003

As my physics professors attempted to teach me, all things balance in the universe. Just won a Q-jet on e-bay for $7.50. It has the hot air choke housing so converting it to electric will be a snap. A rebuild kit, an electric choke and I'll be golden.

Mike

Grand Haven, MI