4 carb choke?

[macadomac]

I bought a 140 that has no choke on any of the carbs. Can I install a choke (how?) on just one carb to get things going or do I need more? It is a 66


I may have go more than I bargained for.

[Trip]

That is extremely odd.

From the factory a 140 had two carbs with chokes... the one toward the back of the car on the drivers side and the one toward the front of the car on the passenger side. You will need to have two for the car to run right... trying to get by with just one would be a really bad idea.

Many people (including me) run four regular Corvair carbs on the 140 and just remove the choke assembly from the secondary carbs.... removing all the chokes is an odd move... might mean that your engine was used for racing at some point and they removed them for better flow?? You might find that that engine has had expensive work done on it if that is the case which would be cool.... on the other hand they could have done a butcher job and if used for racing the engine might have taken a beating.... roll of the dice there.

Can you take a pic and post it? The only stock Corvair carbs with no choke are the somewhat rare secondaries for the 140 engine and the 1960 carbs (choke was in the air cleaner assembly instead in 1960).

This might not be as bad as you think, assuming you do actually have 4 carbs that didn't come with a choke it should be fairly easy to trade two or all four of them for the more common type with the choke. I have some regular carbs myself, they need rebuilds but for a fee I can do that for you.

First let's figure out what you've got and go from there.

[macadomac]

I took 4 pics. How do I attach them? I tried on a private msg to you, but don't think they went.

[Trip]

when you are posting if you scroll down you should see a tab that says "upload attachment" which will open the interface to upload pics.. you have to do one at a time. If you don't see it you are in "quick reply". If that is the case right below the window you are typing in you will see a button that says "full editor", click that and then scroll down to the file uploader.

Let us know if you still have trouble =)

[macadomac]

I will attach right side first. To the rirght of the rear carb is a choke connector arm coming out of engine cover not attached to anything.

[macadomac]

next, same side left view

[macadomac]

woops! Next, left side,right view

[macadomac]

tripple whoops ! Next left view

[Trip]

Interesting indeed.

Your carbs appear to have been "rotated". Clarks sells a kit for this but I'm pretty sure their kit allows you to use the choke rods somehow. The point of rotating the carbs is to prevent "fuel starvation" in hard cornering. The stock setup has always had an issue with the fuel sloshing to one side of the float bowl in a sharp curve or corner and causing a momentary loss of power. The common solution is to install "vent tubes" in the float bowl vents. Rotating the carbs is probably a better solution but to do it right requires a lot of custom linkage and so on that is not very cheap. I'm guessing that this is a "home made" rotator kit that is very incomplete.

Those carbs did originally have chokes because they have the linkages still there.

If you could possibly take pictures of the carbs (showing the throat) with the air cleaners and hoses off I could tell a lot better what you have.

It also looks like your secondaries aren't hooked up at all, unless there is something there that I can't see in the photos. Since the "rotator" kit appears to be homemade and very very incomplete I think what you are going to want to do is go back to a stock setup because even if you get all the missing parts they might not fit if this was a custom job as it appears to me.

To go back to stock you are going to need a set of 140 linkage which isn't all that easy to come by. I think I've got one spare set but I'm not sure I want to part with it as I also have a spare set of 140 heads and carbs that go with it. Also you might need two (or more) carbs depending on what the guy did to rotate them. you'll also need a set of fuel lines. It might be cheaper to buy just the four short lines and bend up your own for the long pair. Unless you are very concerned with originality go with four primaries with the chokes removed from two, it'll be a lot cheaper than buying "correct" secondaries that are scarce.

Sorry for all the bad news, but hang in there and keep communicating with us and we'll figure it all out. I sure wish I was in your area so I could help more effectively.

Something else you should do is contact your nearest CORSA chapter, you might find help there =)

[Trip]

on the "bright" side if the chrome is decent on that fan shroud that is worth at least $100 plus a stock one in trade for you to use. If the chrome is really nice probably more.

[macadomac]

Thanks for taking the time to help sort out what I have. The strange thing is, when the engine is warmed up it runs beautifully. It is just hard to start in cool/cold weather and I know a choke or two would help. I will admit that I am limited in the funds available to " make it right" ..

I will take throat pics in the morning and post them. Thanks again

[macadomac]

Attached is first carb throat pic

[macadomac]

Second

[macadomac]

Third. It should be noted that all throats are identical , all choke plates are identically aligned in the open position, and all move freely when manually opened and closed.

It seems to me that one could install a manual choke so that a synchronized result could be created on one carb in each bank or all four carbs for that matter.

[macadomac]

Woops! forgot # 4

[Trip]

Ok that is what I was looking for. All four carbs have what looks like a complete choke assembly including linkage as far as I noticed.

So basically the only thing preventing you hooking up the chokes is that the carbs have been rotated... so the linkage on the carb is 90 degrees from the choke actuator rod. You might be able to come up with some clever way to hook it up, but I don't know...... If the drivers side one is missing you'll need the assembly, should be pretty cheap to get a salvage one from the Corvair Ranch, I don't know if Clarks has them repro'd or not. You will need the coil with bracket (mounts to the bottom of the head from underneath, inside the shroud), the lower rod, and the upper rod.



It looks like the passenger side choke rod is there, the drivers side one looks like it is missing? The passenger side one is in front of (as in toward the front of the car) the forward passenger side carb.. see it? That should be hooked to the choke linkage on the pass. front carb. There should also be a vacuum canister mounted on the carb (not there) to pull the choke part way open when the engine fires up.

The drivers side one should be toward the rear of the car, behind the rear drivers side carb. That one also needs a vacuum pull-off.

The forward drivers side carb and rearward passenger side carb should not have chokes... so if you use the setup you have got then do something to make sure they stay all the way open at all times.

Are the secondary carbs (drivers front, passenger rear) hooked up to the linkage at all? It looks to me like they are completely disconnected from the linkage.

As I stated earlier, best bet is to put it back to stock, but if that isn't an option for you and it runs the way it is just make do. The other possibility is that if the rotator setup you have is one of the kits (I've never looked at one long enough to be able to tell you if yours is like those) you might be able to buy just the missing parts.. we'd have to look into that.