manual choke

[vso737]

I was wondering if anyone has ever installed a manual choke cable without going straight from the dash to the carburetor through the FIREWALL.  
 
I have a unique situation. I want to keep the CHOKE LEVER on the dash and I want to keep the MANUAL CHOKE capability on my Edelbrock carburetor.  
I DO NOT want to drill through the prestine  stainless steel firewall covering.

I'm working on a 1940 Chevy Cpe with a 427CI motor and a 750 Edelbrock carb.

I have some ideas which I will try out.  I was just wondering if someone has already tackled this .........................

Thanks in advance,
Mike
 
 :(U)

[wayne petty]

push pull cables can work in many lengths ...

hood release cables are way long.. work great usually...  as long as they have the single wire core..    stranded cores don't do well without a spring return on the far end...


you could also encase it in a polished stainless tube bent down at the back of the motor   so the cable and casing are clean in appearance..  with the cable coming out a nicely curved or angled plate..  like a shaft log on a V drive boat or a mid engine boat..  so the exposed part that out of sight will allow the engine to flex without kinking the cable casing..   one might want to use a bellows type of boot on the inside fitting so the cable core will slide in and out of the lower firewall tube and still allow air tight seal..

HINT...   Reese trailer hitch ball grease is made of Teflon..  not something that you want to smear around before a paint job... but for greasing that cable.. where it Will get hot in some places and you don't want it to ever drip..   something that other RRT members might have comments on for lube for that long cable installation..

hint #2
silver solder.. can be used  POSSIBLY.. to extend the CORE wire length..

i am talking about STICK silver solder.. 1100F melt not the silver and tin in a roll..  or even the good strong roll stuff i have in low melting point.  i use it to repair odd items like eye glass frames.. and cracks in radiator tanks..

not in a place where it will be in a BEND.....  this is iffy..  but it might work..  possibly not as easy as drilling the existing push pull rod out and reinstalling a new length of solid on it..

music wire is a good choice...  or a hood release cable repair kit..

just a few thoughts..

[vso737]

Thanks Wayne.............great ideas.

I don't want to have to use a spring.

I will be seriously take a look at all the info.  Especially the hood latch cable and how it is actually installed in the engine compartment.

The solid tube idea is also something worth taking a look at.

Learned a few terms since I'm not a sailor.

I'm pretty sure that I will come to a good solution.

Thanks again,
Mike

[wayne petty]

this might help you ..

push pull cables.. from AZ...

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/accessories/Miscellaneous-Repair-Parts/Universal-Control-Cables/_/N-25k3

when you mentioned.. you have a stock lever..

how is the cable attached to the lever inside the dash..

is it in a crimped on device .. thats NOT removable..  or a Z shaped end that slips into a hole on the lever.... and is the casing clamped or does it have an end piece crimped on also..

all this stuff are things you will have to find out about..

you are only 60 miles up the 101.. and i don't recall what you are working on..  there are 3 or 4 million people living between us.. so its expected.

[vso737]

I just got off a site that sells ZERO friction cable in various lengths.

I'm working on my '40 Chevy Cpe. It appears that the choke was hooked up once upon a time.  I noticed today that the lever on the dash has approx. 6" of wire sticking out under the dash and the Edelbrock manual choke carb. has the levers on the carb for the choke.
I intend to just come off of the cut off wire................

I assume the STAINLESS firewall was installed and who ever did it did NOT want to drill through it.  I don't either.  I did not build this car and have owned it for the past 17 months.  Been busy building my '30 Model A............

I will be taking a close look at everything in the morning and I'm positive that I will be able to get the choke hooked up.

YES, I'm just up the street from you. I grew up in Santa Monica but been living here since 1969.  I don't get down South much but have been learning Brea and Fullerton for the past 4 years since my youngest has been going to Cal State Fullerton.

Thanks again for all the great ideas,
Mike

[wayne petty]

ah.. been there a long time...

my family lived up in lockwood valley from 63 to 69..  until this happened..

chico larson was our local deputy..  he came by as we were at the end of the road almost every day..    

we almost lost mom in that storm..  it was raining so hard the water was flooding under our cabin.. coming up through the floor boards..   mom took a shovel and went outside in it to dig a diagonal trench to divert some of the water coming down the hill..   lightning struck the power pole right between where mom was and the windows we were all looking out of..  we thought she was a goner..

http://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/Hell-in-High-Water.html?page=all

[vso737]

Hi Wayne.........small world.
I served in the Army between 1966-69 and was stationed in Germany with my wife and baby boy when this storm took place.  I have clippings of power polls down in Santa Monica, from the "Stars and Stripes" newspaper in Germany.
I returned from Germany to live in Ventura October 1969.  My sister and brother in law lived in Ventura at the time. They took me to see the devastation and water lines on the Sespe. I could NOT believe how high the water marks were.
I joined the Ventura County Sheriff's Dept. in 1974 and retired in 2002. Of course I have heard of one of our fallen hero's, Chico Larsen, and I have worked in the same unit with Gary Creagle.
They say that this type of storm only comes around once every 50 years.  We have had some good ones since I have lived here but nothing like the Dec. 1968-Jan. 1969.
We now have two families living in Lockwood Valley as resident Deputies.
This entire County has grown ten-fold since I have been here.
LG,
Mike

[wayne petty]

small world...  you have probably been to our place.. we still own it..

mountain lilac trail... through the gate... swing left.. then short right.. and through the next fence line is where ours starts,  where the old yellow cat sits..  for the next 3/4 mile to the looped path at the creek.

we don't get up there often.. the new owner in the middle ground has been resistant to our access with as i under stand from mom as piles of dirt.. just like before chet larson was there..  the big mound of dirt after the short right turn is one of the reasons why he got the posting there..  

as another resident wanted to block our access with dump trucks full of dirt on the road..

dad put up a sign at the end of the driveway to stop the hunters from shooting up the place...  it read.. los pinos hunt club.. membership $500.. none of them wanted to pay the fee..  our 10,000 gallon water tank had so many holes you could see thru it..

the HUGE animal cages off curtis trail are in the wrong place if it ever rains hard again..   i hope they put in good deep foundations..   they really need some really deep diversion walls so they don't wash out .. after the 1857 quake thats an riverbed when it rains...

[vso737]

I took a look at the way the carburetor cable was routed to the carb..........looks like I will be able to do the same thing on the opposite side of the trans. tunnel.  I think it will come out OK in the end.
____________________________

That part of the County is like another WORLD.  My entire 28 year career revolved in the Oxnard/Ventura area. I never even worked the East Valley area because I did not want to make that drive.
I have ONLY been up to Lockwood a few times and never on official duty.  Back in the mid '70s my ex-neighbor from across the street had purchased 28 acres approx. two miles past Pine Mountain Inn on HWY 33, before you get to the Rose Valley turn off and before Lockwood Valley.
Back in the early 80's I used to work O/T patrolling Hungry Valley across from  Gorman on I-5, during the hunting season and peak season for the off road bike riding.  Those were fun times and I could never get used to the fact that I was in Ventura County.  Kern; Ventura and LA Counties meet there and it is  soooo different from where I live in East Ventura.

LG.
Mike

[vso737]

below is a picture of what I'm working on..................

[kb426]

Wayne, that's a very interesting read. Best efforts and good intentions weren't enough.

[PeterR]

The old Chrysler marine engines had an electric operated choke.   The actuator looked very much like a remote trunk release solenoid.  

You could fit a cable operated brake light switch to the cable danging off the existing dash lever and route a lead to the engine with the other wiring.

Only shortcoming is that the choke is either full ON or OFF, you can not feather it off as the engine warms up.

[GPster]

Maybe it's not a problem in California but I have had both of those solutions. It takes some understanding and playing to still have the advantage of the fast idle cam on the carb. There are conditions that I'd like the motor to run a while at an increased RPM but not necessarily "Choked". Kind of like an engine that's computor controlled with the Brain on my shoulders. GPster

[enjenjo]

My NAPA has a 16 ft choke cable, normally used on combines around here. You could run that under the firewall and up the back of the engine.