How to: wire electric choke

[Dangerous Doug]

My Holley "Street Avenger" has an electric choke. Two poles, one an obvious ground. The other, do I wire it to an "accessory" wire, like the white wire going to the solenoid? Turns on when the ignition is on. Better way to wire this?

Dangerous Doug

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Dangerous Doug

..like the white wire going to the solenoid? Turns on when the ignition is on.

I don't have a diagram in front of me, but I believe the white wire is the ballast resistor bypass so the coil gets 12v on startup. Don't use that -- it only gets 12v when cranking (not while running), but I guess it could be back-feeding since it's running to the coil. I would run the feed for the choke off the fuse panel instead, and use an in-line fuse on it too. Pick one of the fuses that gets power when the ignition is on as opposed to constantly hot (if I recall correctly fuses 1 and 2 are constantly hot, the rest get their feeds when the key is turned).

[jhv48]

In case you don't want to mess with it, you don't really need a choke.

I removed mine, as it interferred with the air cleaner I wanted to use.

Just have to sit in the car with my foot on the gas for a few minutes to warm it up. Otherwise don't even notice it is gone.

[MaSnaka]

You can live without it...but start-ups are so much easier with it. It's stays hot as long as the ignition is on otherwise the spring/coil will close the choke plate. Mine doesn't interfere with my air cleaner so I prefer to have it hooked up. I have a wire comming off the voltage regulator, that little silver box about 3"x3"x1" that stays hot as long as the key is on. Without it like jh said you just need to keep it rev'd until it warms up. I did close off the vacuum feed for the choke as it was sucking air. I believe that can be used instead of electric but it draws hot air off the exhaust manifold which I dont have.

John

[Dangerous Doug]

I think you're correct on that white wire off the solenoid.

I'll run a wire off the fuse panel. Have to look at the schematic to figure which sure.

DD

[Dangerous Doug]

Measured the resistance on the electric choke: 9 ohms.

9 Ohms with 12 Volts? That's 1.3 A. Or, about 10% of the fuse on the circuit I'm considering (fuse #4, which comes from the ACC on the switch, and to the voltage regulator.

Sounds like a lot of current, to a guy used to the digital world...

So, I suppose the coiled heat element is made out of something like Tungsten, that changes resistance with temperature (thus, reducing the current).

Ponder, ponder, ponder...

DD

[strictlypersonl]

Only 1.3A? I would have expected more, actually. The current is used to heat a bimetallic spiral spring that uncoils the choke plate. I guess 15W should do it though.

[trularin]

Doug, if you have an empty fuse slot in the bank, put ACC to one side and run the other side to the 1/4 inch spade lug. Put a 5A fuse in and she should be ready to go.

Let her sit over night and then, in the morning, go out and push the throttle once. The choke should close and be just closed, not slammed shut. Adjust the tension by loosening the three T screws in the side and turn the black can. If you take it off, you have to align it to get it back on.

Anyway, start the car and run it. There are like three stages of fast idle, you can adjust each one. Once set, take a tooth pick and dab ( dab mind you ) a bit of loctite blue and on each fast idle screw...all two of them.

Should take about 3 minutes to heat the choke coil and settle to warm idle.

Hope this helps!

[Dangerous Doug]

trularin: Sounds like a plan. I'll add this to Saturday's tuning efforts before I take it out for it's FIRST DRIVE!

DD