My fast idle cam is kinda worn and when hot it doesn't have enough strength to unlock the metal piece that lets the secondary valves open. Can I just unhook this thing?
Only if you dont run a choke ,Wont start in cold weather without it.You could put a mechanical choke cable on it and do away with it.............
yeah it still has a mechanical choke on the p***enger side. I just want to disconnect the fast idle cam on the driver side. I don't believe it will affect the choke at all. It just won't push the plunger down a hair when it's cold.
You can disconnect it. What it does is rev the motor until it is warm and then kick down the idle when it's warm. Here in California we don't really need them, but it will cause a problem running in cold weather until it warms up. If you have this problem what you can do is speed the idle a LITTLE to conpensate. As long as you have a good idling car you shouldn't have a problem.
Your post does not tell us the make/style of carburetor, so kind of shooting from the hip. Any carburetor that readily comes to mind with a fast idle cam is set up such that BOTH the cam and the secondary lockout are controlled by the opening of the choke. While the cam may be worn, the cause of the secondary lockout not being disabled would be because of either improper adjustment or the autochoke not opening completely. To check, with the engine off, try moving the choke ****erfly until it is in the vertical position and observe to see if the secondary lockout is now disabled. If not, determine why. Yes, you can generally remove both the secondary lockout and the fast idle cam; but as above, the choke may not be opening completely. If not, both performance and fuel economy will suffer. (Opinion) better to determine cause before hacking the condition. Jon.
for SOME carbs- Since you live in AZ I don't think it will ever be used. I have done without them. Here in Illinois a car wouldn't idle right (with your foot completely off the gas pedal) in cold wheather for the first few minutes of running, but you'd never need it after that. I still backed mine away from the step-up screw mainly because I didn't want to blip the throttle to get it off the fast idle cam as it warmed up. I know some smart-... will say I only neededed to adjust it correctly, but I preferred to adjust it completely out of the system. If you want it to idle perfectly during the first minute of cold start-up with no foot on the pedal, on a cold day you might want to keep it. Otherwise it serves very little purpose unless it also is used as an intermediate bellcrank for another linkage or something like that. If you don't have other rods attached to it that operate something else more important, I simply "back it completely out of the system". Now if I moved farther north, I would want to keep it operating correctly.
Even in Pheonix, it get's cold sometimes! I agree with Carbking, fix the choke, they are simple and allow the car to run like it was designed. The more **** you disable, the less like a Caddy it will be, and in so doing more like a clapped out beater. I've always taken pride in making my old rides run sweet, even the ones with hot motors. Really is cool when your chick likes to drive it instead of "I hate that damn thing!"
A matter of personal preference, if you don't mind the foot control throttle when cold , go for it! In Arizona I'm sure it's not bad, but here in Okie weather I prefer a working choke, really not a big deal, my daily driver (388 SBC, 700r4 w 3000 lok up,4.11s, cal-tracs) runs 12.90s thru the mufflers on 195-75-14s. Last week when it was 8 degrees, I pumped the Quick Fuel SS750 with electric choke and a Holley choke ground limter, twice and had to hold the throttle for maybe 20-30 seconds and fast idle and I s****ed my windows and went back inside to let it warm up. Chokes are like everything, just gotta learn and overcome. Good luck.
6DEUCE...you can idle the engine higher and have the choke to. if you know how. i instaled a cable to the ****er fly drop. that's for choking when cold, but you realy need to understand how. find a good hotrod mechanic- he'll know...POP.
I believe my previous post may have been misinterpreted. I mentioned that the fast idle cam may be disconnected. As others have mentioned, this is a matter of personal preference. However, a worn fast idle cam is NOT the cause of the secondary lockout not functioning correctly. Both the fast idle cam AND the secondary lockout are controlled by the position of the choke, and the adjustment of the linkage from the choke to the fast idle cam. The choke lockout not functioning as it should MAY be telling you that the choke ****erfly is never going completely vertical. This condition WILL cause an overrich condition; possibly doing damage to the engine rings, and CERTAINLY contributing to poor fuel economy. Thus, regardless of whether the fast idle cam is disabled or not, the function of the choke should be checked. If the issue is linkage, no problem; but if the issue IS the choke ****erfly, a little PM may mean large savings. Jon.
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