cold start problem

[carobotics]

well, my car is haveing a hard time starting when it is cold out now. I have been pluggin in the block heater regularly.
Every morning I go out and give it two shots of gas and start it. It starts fine and everthing is dandy for about 10-20 seconds, this is when the rpms drop and the car dies. If I try giveing it gas as the rpms drop it dies faster. At this point, it doesn't matter if I pump the gas or not. The car will start only twice more and die immediatly after starting. Further attempts at starting the car ar futile. I get out scrape my windows, sit back in the car for a minute, don't touch the gas and the car usually starts without incident. I can then drive away with no problems. What's going on here?

[Greg]

I'm guessing that you're getting TOO MUCH gas. Your choke opener should open the choke to about 30 degrees almost immediately after the car starts. I have a cable hooked up where my choke opener was linked. If I don't pull off the cable from inside the car after starting, my car runs SUPER RICH after it starts (because the choke is closed and the car is getting no air) and it will stall out.

Check the vacuum lines at the choke opener. You can find pictures of the thing on this site where someone posted excellent pics on a post about rebuilding your carb. I think vacuum lines 18 and 26 go to the opener, which is at the front of your carb. With the car running, hook up a vacuum pump to the fitting where line 18 connects and see if you can get the thing to pull the arm by drawing vacuum by hand.

You should also check for vacuum leaks and clean your choke linkage, choke plate, and throttle linkage while you're at it. Actually, do this first and see if this alone fixes things before you go on to screw around with other stuff because there is a chance that your choke is just sticking and not opening.

-Greg