Summer Heat

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MrUnlucky

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Having some odd behavior when starting in the afternoon. All through the winter and spring Abigail's started up right on cue but here in the peak of summer the choke seems to be out of sync with the engine temperature. She starts fine early in the morning when it's still cool but after work, when she's been baking in the heat all day, she hesitates to start.

Now I already know that the VW PICT3 carb has its own heating element and is not warmed by the engine, so I'm not sure if the choke is open too much due to the choke heating up or if it's open too little due to the block being warm enough to not need as much choke. Anyone else had this problem?

Paranoiac that I am, I've already made sure the C5 is correctly aligned to TDC and am going to pull my timing covers to make 100% sure that my timing belts haven't slipped a tooth (the C5 was slightly off, but might have just been from months of spinning in circles). Also going to order a couple of fuel filters since I realized I don't have a spare yet (don't think this is the problem because after both the choke and block warm up she purrs like a kitten). Also my battery seems to be getting weak (sluggish starter motor speed unless connected to jumpstart battery) so maybe the coils just aren't getting enough juice when the battery is hot at the end of the day.
 
I never liked the electric chokes on my old cars for this very reason.
They'd do great if the engine is over night cold but during the day they'd often close too much when not needed to start and flood the engine. I'd have to open the throttle quite a bit to blow it clear to get it to start.
The carbs had a cam that would force the choke plate open when mashing the throttle open. Does yours do that?
 
You can adjust your choke so that you have hardly any choke on in the warm temperatures. I only use choke on the Rats Nest a couple of times a year as most times it is not really cold enough to use the choke. On my Subaru powered Kombi I don't have any choke and just use the accelerator pump to enrich it to get it started, I then let it idle until it warms up enough for me to be able to use the accelerator without it causing the engine to stall.
 
[url=https://classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=179468#p179468:2cn96e6o said:
dan filipi » Today, 3:56 pm[/url]":2cn96e6o]
The carbs had a cam that would force the choke plate open when mashing the throttle open. Does yours do that?
No, the choke butterfly position affects where the throttle cable/lever bottoms out, but the throttle cable/lever doesn't move the butterfly.
I can easily lift my air filter off and stick my finger in it to open the butterfly, though...which I just tried and it started up quickly and smoothly.
Problem solved, I guess (I hope).
 
If ur power to carb is hooked to acc in fuse block, turn key on and watch how long it takes for choke to open up. Next time u get ready to start it on a really hot day, turn key to on to accesory and wait that long for choke to open and crank her up......ps I live in louisiana in the heat, and never experienced problem u r describing, I think weak battery or bad ground is the real problem
 
On cars with that choke I adjusted the choke to a leaner position, one that gives less choke to start when warm which resulted in being a bit lean to start easy when cold, using the accelerator pump to juice it some to start. Had to find that happy medium.

I always hated having to futz around with that damn choke.
One that used a bimetal under a cover in the intake manifold usually worked much better.
They also used a vacuum operated choke pull off. It would open the choke plate about 1/4 way or so once it started. That seemed to work pretty good once I found the sweet spot in the adjustments.
 
[url=https://classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=179476#p179476:f4lkil5p said:
dkl » 19 minutes ago[/url]":f4lkil5p]
If ur power to carb is hooked to acc in fuse block, turn key on and watch how long it takes for choke to open up. Next time u get ready to start it on a really hot day, turn key to on to accesory and wait that long for choke to open and crank her up......ps I live in louisiana in the heat, and never experienced problem u r describing, I think weak battery or bad ground is the real problem
I double-checked the ground for the C5, no trouble there. I'm charging the battery off my KZ440 (which is quite a bit larger than the 440 actually needed) to try swapping them out. I'm pretty confident about the stator, as I have a voltage guage attached to the handlebar and confirmed it's reading with my Fluke as 13.4v at the battery and 12v at the terminal screws on the load side of the voltage regulator. Since that lovely C5 started pretty much instantly every time, the battery could have been slowly dying for months and I never would have noticed since it didn't need to spin the starter motor more than half a second.
 
:uparrow: +1. My (limited) experience with the 34 Pict 3 has been that I need no choke at all during the Georgia summer. On cold start, two twists for accelerator pump squirts does the trick, then no throttle on warm starts are required. Turn that choke wide open even on cold starts during warm weather and see how she behaves. (I have richened my idle jet up from stock 0.55 to 0.60 which might help cold starts without choke)

Low voltage on cranking will cause hard starts, too. I have an 81 Suzuki GS1100 that was always a cold hearted so-and-so. My starter was pulling too many amps from an old battery. It had a VERY slow crank speed. It was always a gamble whether she would crank up or not. After cleaning the starter motor internally and a good, fresh battery, she fires up very well every time. Amazing difference.
 
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