Electric Choke Conversion

68 4spd Fury

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Since I had my radiator re-cored, (w/an additional row), the car has never overheated or got to the top of the temp gage even on the hottest days. A little downside, now that the weather is colder, it takes a long time to get down to curb idle. Is there an electric choke conversion available? I've looked but what I found requires a housing on the carb. I think electric chokes were put in starting around 77-78? Would one of those work?
 
What kind of carburetor do you have and some pictures would help as well.
 
Stock divorce choke has nothing to do with water temp. Exhaust crossover heats a bimetallic spring contracting it and opening choke. 1973 was first year electric heat was added to divorced choke to open it earlier reducing emissions.
 
On the divorce choke you bend the rod to shorten or lengthen, covered in the FSM.
If you pull the choke thermostat out of the manifold, there should be an adjustment on the spring. It's not illustrated in the FSM, but it is referenced in the specs for adjustment.
 
First of all, what year car and engine do you have? Vehicles with small block engines, (273, 318, 340, 360), had a problem when the intake crossover passage became plugged up, from bad valve seals. This could also happen on the other Chrysler engines. After the vehicle reaches operating temp. you should feel heat on the intake manifold around the base of the choke, if not it is plugged up, or blocked off.
 
What kind of carburetor do you have and some pictures would help as well.
Stock Carter AVS
IMG_3873.JPG
IMG_3874.JPG
 
Stock divorce choke has nothing to do with water temp. Exhaust crossover heats a bimetallic spring contracting it and opening choke. 1973 was first year electric heat was added to divorced choke to open it earlier reducing emissions.
Thanks but heats not the problem, I can wait for that. Just want to get down to curb idle sooner.
 
If you pull the choke thermostat out of the manifold, there should be an adjustment on the spring. It's not illustrated in the FSM, but it is referenced in the specs for adjustment.

Thanks, I didn't know about that, I'll give it a try. Also, the heat riser on the manifold isn't working. It's still free but the spring is missing. I've never been able to locate one. I know they exist since repro HP manifolds are made with them heat riser in place.
 
First of all, what year car and engine do you have? Vehicles with small block engines, (273, 318, 340, 360), had a problem when the intake crossover passage became plugged up, from bad valve seals. This could also happen on the other Chrysler engines. After the vehicle reaches operating temp. you should feel heat on the intake manifold around the base of the choke, if not it is plugged up, or blocked off.

'68 383 HP, stock carb. Good point, I did have bad valve seals, changed them out 2 years ago.
 
Personally, I'd see about adjusting what you have rather than adding things on, at this time. More on that later.

The "electric chokes" which Chrysler used were more "electric-assist" chokes, from what I could see. An external heating element placed near the choke thermostat coil on a special-casting intake manifold. I tried them on my '67 Newport with the Torker 383 manifold with mediocre results. Your experience might vary.

End result, any non-factory electric choke mechanism CAN need to be customized for your vehicle, one way or another. In that orientation, you can probably adjust your existing choke to work better. Here's what I usually end up doing.

As the choke thermostatic spring ages, it gets "tighter", which means it needs more heat to relax. When you remove the thermostat from the manifold, you'll see the thermostatic coil, held in place with a lock nut, plus a plate with an index mark on it, which lays on top of a scale of sorts, with "L" and "R" (lean and rich, respectively) on it.

I usually start with going 1 notch leaner than the FSM spec. Loosen the lock nut and rotate the R/L scale one notch leaner than where it currently is (or the factory spec). Retighten the lock nut and put the thermostat back into the intake manifold as it should be. Reattach the linkage to the choke plate's linkage.

With the ambient temp (air around the carb, around the engine, outside, metal temp of the engine), when the throttle is manually opened (engine off), the choke plate should just close. An "easy" close rather than a "snap shut" close. From that point, you can manually compress the choke pull-off plunger to see where the opening will be when the engine starts and runs. The "bends" and "V"s in the links make for easy adjustment locations.

Getting the choke thermostat correctly adjusted will determine the basic closing and also the speed with which the choke "comes off". I usually also like to adjust the fast idle speed screw such that as the choke is nearly open, the fast idle speed screw contacts the lowest step on the fast idle cam AND is adjusted to about 50rpm more than the hot base idle speed. As the choke is opened, no real need for really high fast idle speeds with a warming-up engine.

The only best time to check the choke/engine performance is on that "first start" in the morning and afternoon. Going to work, coming home from work.

The clogged heat riser passages have been, from what I've seen, more prevalent on LA engines which are driven short distances, with few highway trips. But that usually takes several years to happen. The engines progressively run longer "on choke" and the richer mixtures carbon-up everything, including the intake manifold heat crossover passages. Have to chisel that stuff out! The local dealer sold a lot of mid-60s Belvederes to older ladies. 273 and 318 2bbls that after a while, the chokes never came off. They'd complain about the fast idle speed being too much, which was the trigger that told the service manager what the issues were.

LA engines usually run cooler than B/RB engines do, too, which complicates things. In the cooler weather we see in DFW, I'd find that the pcv line on my '80 Newport 360 2bbl would gunk up with condensate, resulting in a milky residue on top of the dipstick.

The other side of my leaner choke adjustments is that spark plug and ignition tune need to be good. NGK V-Power (not the electrode style) help to fire leaner mixtures, for example. Accel pump shot needs to be responsive, in the case the just-started engine speed starts to falter, just as the base timing needs to be good, even 2 degrees advanced from factory specs.

It might take a little fine-tuning (otherwise called "playing with it") to get things to work for your driving conditions and traffic patterns. When you do get it dialed-in, it'll be good.

Just my experiences,
CBODY67
 
I just put in a manual choke cable for what little cold weather we get down here. Need to adjust the linkage though w the "new" rebuilt Stromberg I installed last month. I like manual chokes!
 
Personally, I'd see about adjusting what you have rather than adding things on, at this time. More on that later.

The "electric chokes" which Chrysler used were more "electric-assist" chokes, from what I could see. An external heating element placed near the choke thermostat coil on a special-casting intake manifold. I tried them on my '67 Newport with the Torker 383 manifold with mediocre results. Your experience might vary.

End result, any non-factory electric choke mechanism CAN need to be customized for your vehicle, one way or another. In that orientation, you can probably adjust your existing choke to work better. Here's what I usually end up doing.

As the choke thermostatic spring ages, it gets "tighter", which means it needs more heat to relax. When you remove the thermostat from the manifold, you'll see the thermostatic coil, held in place with a lock nut, plus a plate with an index mark on it, which lays on top of a scale of sorts, with "L" and "R" (lean and rich, respectively) on it.

I usually start with going 1 notch leaner than the FSM spec. Loosen the lock nut and rotate the R/L scale one notch leaner than where it currently is (or the factory spec). Retighten the lock nut and put the thermostat back into the intake manifold as it should be. Reattach the linkage to the choke plate's linkage.

With the ambient temp (air around the carb, around the engine, outside, metal temp of the engine), when the throttle is manually opened (engine off), the choke plate should just close. An "easy" close rather than a "snap shut" close. From that point, you can manually compress the choke pull-off plunger to see where the opening will be when the engine starts and runs. The "bends" and "V"s in the links make for easy adjustment locations.

Getting the choke thermostat correctly adjusted will determine the basic closing and also the speed with which the choke "comes off". I usually also like to adjust the fast idle speed screw such that as the choke is nearly open, the fast idle speed screw contacts the lowest step on the fast idle cam AND is adjusted to about 50rpm more than the hot base idle speed. As the choke is opened, no real need for really high fast idle speeds with a warming-up engine.

The only best time to check the choke/engine performance is on that "first start" in the morning and afternoon. Going to work, coming home from work.

The clogged heat riser passages have been, from what I've seen, more prevalent on LA engines which are driven short distances, with few highway trips. But that usually takes several years to happen. The engines progressively run longer "on choke" and the richer mixtures carbon-up everything, including the intake manifold heat crossover passages. Have to chisel that stuff out! The local dealer sold a lot of mid-60s Belvederes to older ladies. 273 and 318 2bbls that after a while, the chokes never came off. They'd complain about the fast idle speed being too much, which was the trigger that told the service manager what the issues were.

LA engines usually run cooler than B/RB engines do, too, which complicates things. In the cooler weather we see in DFW, I'd find that the pcv line on my '80 Newport 360 2bbl would gunk up with condensate, resulting in a milky residue on top of the dipstick.

The other side of my leaner choke adjustments is that spark plug and ignition tune need to be good. NGK V-Power (not the electrode style) help to fire leaner mixtures, for example. Accel pump shot needs to be responsive, in the case the just-started engine speed starts to falter, just as the base timing needs to be good, even 2 degrees advanced from factory specs.

It might take a little fine-tuning (otherwise called "playing with it") to get things to work for your driving conditions and traffic patterns. When you do get it dialed-in, it'll be good.

Just my experiences,
CBODY67

Thanks! Very detailed reply, allot of good information.
 
As always, thanks for the info. Pulled the choke and seems to have worked. Was at -1, dropped to -2. At least good enough for what I need.
IMG_1833.JPG
 
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