Choke question

Guys - My '85 F150 with the 4.9L six has a single barrel carb the p.o. bought off Amazon, he tells me.  For the life of me, I can't find a name on this carb...not even a Made in China.  :-)  
Anyway, seems I have to wait for the engine to warm up before driving.  If I don't, it's real sluggish - like my e-brake is on, but it isn't.  If I slowly give her more gas I have to be patient for an increase in speed.
Sounds like a choke thing, since it runs okay warm.  Starts fine and when I got home & removed the air cleaner, the choke plate was fully open, FWIW.



Any suggestions on what to adjust, bend or smash would be appreciated!

Here is a thread from way in the past and it was for a 1986 F150 with 4.9L and non feedback carburetor.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1110073-choke-adjustment-101-a.html

By the way, has your distributor been changed to a non feedback unit? Does it have a vacuum line attached or are there a number of wires toward the bottom of the distributor body?

Thank you for taking the time to put that into very understandable words, for a dolt like me!

I'll do the same on a cold start and see where the choke plate is.

By the way, my carb has nothing attached to the bib up near the throat that this orange hose is on.



Where does the other end go?

Oh and my carb doesn't have the little vacuum can (unloader?) this carb has.  Maybe that explains why mine has no hose attached..?

Can you show a picture of where the electric plugs in?
Some need a full 12 volts and others 6 to 7 volts.
Also dose the carb have a fitting on it for the steel hot air line to screw on to it?

That nipple you dont have anything to by the air filter flange may need to be capped but need to see if you have hot air choke.
Dave ----

the "vacuum unloader" is there to pull the choke open as far as the choke control wil let it to allow the engine to run as close to normal as possible, as soon as possible. without it you are relying entirely on the coil and environmental heat available. if your coil is getting less than the needed voltage then it will surely be slow to wake up.

IowaTom wrote

By the way, my carb has nothing attached to the bib up near the throat that this orange hose is on.



Where does the other end go?

The orange hose is part of the "fresh air" tube for your thermostatic (hot air) choke.  The rubber hose is attached to a length of tubing that would go into a choke stove on the exhaust manifold.  The other end of the choke stove stove would have an insulated "hot air" tube leading back up to your choke cap.

The image below is for a V8, but hopefully you can see how it is all plumbed:



Without these items in place, your choke is not going to work correctly.

I found my carb on amazon and it resembles the Kipa 1bb YF type, for around $90.  Mine, like that one, doesn't have a voltage tab on the bi-metal case, so it relies on heat from the pipe from the exhaust manifold, which screws into the carb.  

I found my choke plate was not closing down on a cold engine "pump" of the accelerator, so removed the carb - working on that engine is a back killer! - and made an adjustment to linkage so now it will close down.  Chokes are wonderful things when they work right.  When they don't I begin dreaming of buying an FI system.  :-)  Thankfully, they're reasonably easy to adjust.

Thanks much for all your ideas!  It's like having you guys out in the garage with me...kinda.

Ya think I should put a rubber cap on that open bib at the top of the throat?

cap any and all unused ports

IowaTom wrote

Chokes are wonderful things when they work right.  When they don't I begin dreaming of buying an FI system.  :-)  Thankfully, they're reasonably easy to adjust.

Yes, they work quite well when they are set up properly and adjusted.

Without the choke tubes, your choke is neither set up properly nor adjusted properly. You are going to dream about buying an EFI system again when it turns cooler and your choke doesn't work right no matter what adjustments you make to the linkage.

Can concur... the choke on my 1984 4.9 didn't work right until I replaced the rotted out hot air tubing (capping the ports off wasn't enough!). The choke is a "dual heat" design... it needs both the stove connection and the electric element working to properly operate.

In my case, since I had the intake off while I was rebuilding my engine, I was able to carefully drill out the rotted remains of the old tubing from said exhaust mainifold and then installed new lines I bent/flared out of some copper ice maker tubing (1/4"). I tried to solder them in place but the manifold is too effective of a heat sink. But I did make it work and AFAIK it doesn't leak. Works for me!

Edit- Looking at Tom's pictures, it seems his choke has no stove hookup to speak of. Which means that unless a different choke coil from stock is used, it's doomed to never work right. There are carb applications that use purely electric chokes (like the Kehin-clone carb on a chinese moped I used to ride)... but whether or not anything with a carter-style choke was designed that way is beyond me.

Sounds like time for a manual choke.

sounds like time for the correct carb!

Whisler wrote

Sounds like time for a manual choke.

mat in tn wrote

sounds like time for the correct carb!

If he has a carb that works other than the choke not all is lost.
Someone hinted about electric cap and that with the hot air tube is the answer.
Dose the old carb have an electric cap and if so swap it with the one on your good carb.

This has been posted by someone before to get his choke to work right that he had to use the old carbs choke cap on the new carb.
And yes he also had to have the hot air part working too.
Dave ----