OK, I know that figuring this out might be a pain in the ass, but I need some help.
I was having problems with my idle staying too high after the car warmed up. Basically, the choke opener diaphram was leaking, and it wouldn't pull open the choke. I think my thermovalve A was also bad (I ran some tests on it with a hand pump, and it wouldn't hold vacuum from line 18 when the car was off).
I'm really broke, and so I didn't want to go get the oem parts to fix all this stuff. I also didn't want to get a dozen carbs from junkyards hoping to get good parts. I think there might be other problems with my carb as well, and I wanted a simple fix.
So I ran a cable to where the choke opener arm goes and created a manual choke. I think my manual choke is working fine as far as being able to pull open the choke a little extra once it warms up, and it seems to also retract fine when I push it back.
I basically left the automatic choke intact, using the spring action from the bimetal spring in the automatic choke as my return spring for the choke opener cable (does this make sense?)
I cut the arm from the choke opener diaphram that was broken and hooked the cable to this arm. So the cable pulls what the choke opener was pulling before.
Here is my problem:
On a cold morning, I push down the gas pedal to the floor twice and then start the car. It now gets WAY TOO MUCH GAS for some reason. It starts up, idles at about 2000 rpm (normal) for a second, and then drops down to 1500 and sounds REALLY crappy and smells like it's getting flooded with gas. When I look down the throat of the carb barrel, I see it spraying gas like a kid after a can of beans.
When I use my manual choke opener to open the choke, the idle surges to like 2500 for a while. This morning, after a little bit, it dropped down and stopped running rich after just a minute or less, and then I closed the choke mostly. THen it idled @ about 1800 or so (normal), and then when it warmed up, I pulled off the choke, kicked down the gas, and it went down to a smooth 900.
It always runs fine after the first couple minutes, but it is doing this erratic shit, spraying too much gas upstream of the throttle plate when I first start it.
WHY THE HELL IS IT DOING THIS?
Right now I have the vacuum lines from the old choke opener unplugged.
*** Here is some additional info.
Before, my line 14 to the top fitting on the back of the carb was cooked, and it had a big hole. I also replaced this line when I did my manual choke.
My crankcase breather element was totally clogged, and I changed this as well.
I washed down all my linkage, the choke plate, and the shit down the throat of the carb with a lot of carb cleaner.
I also did some poking around when I was checking out the carb, trying to gently push and pull linkage to make sure that nothing was stuck. I have this weird fear that maybe I pushed the arm to some diaphram and punctured some diaphram, but I don't really think I was rough with it.
I don't think I have any other vacuum leaks unless they are at the very bottom of the carb or underneath where I can't really see, but I really don't think so.
Do you think that reconnecting #14 (power valve) might be doing this? How does the power valve actually work? Does it just spray extra gas down the main metering jet in the main venturi upstream of the throttle plate?
Thanks so much for any help you can give me!!! I don't really have money, so I want to do cheap fixes if I can. I DON'T WANT to rebuild my carb. I don't have the time right now, I don't have a garage, and it's getting goddamn cold working on the street in Chicago.
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