[mowgli]

OK -- put a new Edelbrock(1406) carb on about a week ago, been playing with the idle mixture screws-tweaking the idle here and there,been running fairly decent. Still running too rich-I know I'll need to jet down and I think I screwed up by running the choke power feed to the coil. Pulled the plugs last nite (at 3 friggin' degrees below zero) and sure as hell-fouled bad. Cleaned 'em up threw 'em back in, checked fluids as I was under the hood anyway. Fired the old warhorse up and she seemed to run like a champ. Daybreak- 5 below -warm the truck up for about 15 min. and hit the road- halfway to my bosses house the bitch starts stumbling again, guessing the choke still hadn't opened up at that point,finally dies (out of the road, thank god).I pop the air cleaner open and am greeted with the sight of a greyish-white film covering the top of the carb- there's even a patch of white on the air cleaner- WTF!!!! never seen that before, nor have any of my other shadetree buddies- ANY IDEAS!?!?!?! I'm guessing that the 9-10 volts from the coil isn't quite enuff for the choke and the amperage loss isn't helping with the ignition in the chambers, but what is with this white film

 

[ramcharger_blue02]

Is it ice? secondly is it sweet? I know that when someone puts sugar in your gas tank, it's supposed to come out looking like cotton candy. Sorry, i couldn't be of any intelligent help.

 

[chrysler300le]

there is a wire generally there used for the electric assist on the divorced choke. Use that wire and run an extension up the the electric choke on the carb. Also the carb is adjustable on how fast the choke opens. There is 3 torx screws on the outside of the electric choke. Loosen them up and adjust the black thing either way till it opens up correctly.

 

[mowgli]

Gonna' re-wire the choke this evening, and make some adjustments, but I still have no clue what the damn film is on the carb is- it had an almost greasy texture on the back of the butterfly....

 

[txs]

Sounds like carb iceing up to me, is your heat crossover open and working?

 

[mowgli]

Don't know if'n the crossover is open- I was informed today that Chrysler manifolds are particularily suseptible to plugging up. I appreciate the suggestions and offer many thanks for helping me pull my head outta' my fourth point of contact.

 

[Ram]

Did you have anything like that film before changing carb's? Was the engine back firing that you could tell? Do you have your timing set correctly? Lastly when was the last time you pulled a compression check? And you have to get that coil free of that choke heater circuit. Find some alway hot when ignition on someplace else like the field to the alternator or something on the inner fender that is powered by the ignition, just not the coil.

 

[mowgli]

Didn't have the film on the old carb-no backfiring either- changed the old carb 'cuz it was running like crap- on the way to work one day it flooded itself bad- it was like a cam or something rolled over center- the carb locked up with the choke closed shut like somebody welded the damn thing - needed a quick fix and actually had more money than time for a change. just reset the timing around Sept. or so -had been running great (even picked up about 2mpg) until the weather got really cold (below Zero). Hadn't seen the need to do a compression check since I've owned it.( If it ain't broke, don't fix it). Q: so the field on the alt has a consistent 12v Sorry if that's a stupid question- I'm still pretty new to this wrenching thing...

 

[Guest]

I would leave the charging and ignition systems alone and go with what Chrysler300 said. If not that, then run wire from your fuse panel. As far as the film, has South Dakota started using that crappy ethanol or oxygenated fuel?

 

[mowgli]

Hmmmm- does anybody have any idea what starting fluid looks like when it freezes up on top of a carb? I think I do

 

[mowgli]

PG- I think I was in the process of unintentionally answering your question when you posted- you're welcome to be the first in line to plant a boot up my backside As far as the Ethanol query, just about every station in town has it in one or all octanes; I've been getting my gas at Sam's for about two years, as far as I know the ethanol content there is nil

 

[Guest]

Colorado used to be real big on ethanol. Made my truck run like crap in real cold weather. (Warm weather too) The top of the carb always looked like it was frosted over.

 

[mowgli]

I've got this bad habit of assuming the worst first... So, when those first little rays of sunshine appear in the AM, I'll be checking my crossover for blockage, finding a nice,clean ignition switched 12v source for the choke, checking the timing, changing the plugs and take it from there... thanks for your input- it's helping me form a deliberate train of thought

 

[chrysler300le]

If you didn't rip out any wiring then you have a wire laying near your coil that was used for the electric assist on divorced chokes. Since you don't have divorced choke then that wire should be laying loose or still hooked up to a small ceramic resister just in front of your coil. Pull that wire off that connection and add some wire to that to reach your electric choke hook up. That wire is controlled by the ignition switch and i've used that setup for both vehicles i have Edelbrocks on.

 

[mowgli]

Primer Grey and Chrysler300le-each of you may grab a very large hammer and pick a side of my skull to bash on...
Couldn't find the wire from the resistor, so captain dumbass decides to wire the choke to the field terminal on the alternator, might not have been an issue IF I hadn't cracked the insulating washer. Lucky for me the wire frying stopped at the machine crimp in front of the firewall. Spent the better part of two hours making sure I hadn't burned thru the insulation on any other wires in the loom and running new wire to the field terminal. I now have new field brushes as well (only way I could get a replacement washer was to buy new brushes).LOTS of lessons learned yesterday!!! Choke is now operated via the fuse block and reset as well- it was set way too rich. My baby is running way better than she has in a while. Thanks again folks!!!

 

[dodgecharger]

Congrats, glad you got it figured out.

 

[MtMopar]

It's all part of the process, I think I have screwed up more things than I have fixed.. But I'm getting better