manual choke conversion

Phil Brook · Post by **Phil Brook** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 11:18 am

After messing with carb and choke there hasn't been a severe frost to indicate if there is any improvement in tne starting problems I posted recently. The petrol gauge seems to be moving across very rapidly now so all is not well there!! I want to change to a manual choke- been on't internet and there seems a a good few to choose from. Anyone got a recommendation?

Stinkwheel · Post by **Stinkwheel** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 12:02 pm

PM the member Rich on this forum, he has a petrol BX that was having similar problems, we looked at the thing to no avial, then he did a manual choke conversion and all is well.

electrokid · Post by **electrokid** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 8:00 pm

There are a couple of things worth checking even if you end up converting to manual choke.

Check the anti-stall diaphram on the carb - the smallest pin-hole or crack will only get bigger and fitting a manual choke won't make any difference if this is leaking petrol into the vacuum pipework.

Check that the coolant path through the carb is getting hot - coolant temp operates the auto choke and warms the inlet manifold. If that area isn't getting hot then things are starting to get bunged up so a blocked heater matrix is not far off and a cold inlet manifold will keep your fuel consumption high.

IMHO it's worth finding out what's going wrong with the auto choke rather than fitting a manual - faults that stop the auto choke working tend to come back and bite you in other ways if left unattended.

RogerPorter · Post by **RogerPorter** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 12:04 am

then he did a manual choke conversion and all is well.

Did the same here two years ago and it transformed the cold starting of the car. Even fired up second turn of the key after being unused for six weeks and enduring the snow and extreme temperatures recently! I looked thru eBay records to see if i could find the make but not able to and packaging is well disposed of now. However, it only cost me £5 and £3 postage so was even cheaper than i had remembered

It was a private seller (classicaudiman) so i don't know whether it would be worth contacting him via eBay.

HTH, Roger

scarecrow · Post by **scarecrow** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 11:02 am

electrokid wrote:There are a couple of things worth checking even if you end up converting to manual choke.

Check the anti-stall diaphram on the carb - the smallest pin-hole or crack will only get bigger and fitting a manual choke won't make any difference if this is leaking petrol into the vacuum pipework.

Check that the coolant path through the carb is getting hot - coolant temp operates the auto choke and warms the inlet manifold. If that area isn't getting hot then things are starting to get bunged up so a blocked heater matrix is not far off and a cold inlet manifold will keep your fuel consumption high.

IMHO it's worth finding out what's going wrong with the auto choke rather than fitting a manual - faults that stop the auto choke working tend to come back and bite you in other ways if left unattended.

Brian is quite right. I had the anti-stall pod replaced on mine and they were still available from Gower and Lee. I also had the vacuum advance diaphragm replaced on the distributor, but this part was very difficult to source indeed. I do have a manual choke, but would prefer a properly functioning auto-choke, though these didn't exist on the 14 as far as I know...

Rich · Post by **Rich** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 12:18 pm

PM recieved and returned.